Art of Archibald J. Motley, Jr.

The Art of Archibald J. Motley, Jr

BY JONTYLE THERESA ROBINSON

and Wendy Greenhouse

With an Introduction by
Floyd Coleman

Chicago Historical Society

The Art of Archibald J. Motley, Jr.
accompanies the exhibition
“The Art of Archibald J. Motley, Jr.”

Exhibition organized by the
Chicago Historical Society

Exhibition Tour
Chicago Historical Society
October 23, 1991-March 17, 1992

Studio Museum of Harlem
New York City
April 5-June 10, 1992

High Museum\Georgia-Pacific Gallery

Atlanta, Georgia

June 29-September 25, 1992

Corcoran Gallery of Art
Washington, D.C.

October 10, 1992-January 3, 1993

Published in the United States of America in 1991
by the Chicago Historical Society.

© 1991 by the Chicago Historical Society. All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced in any manner
whatsoever without permission in writing of the
Chicago Historical Society.

Director of Publications, Chicago Historical Society: Russell Lewis.
Edited by Russell Lewis and Rosemary Adams.

Designed by Bill Van Nimwegen. Composed in Gill Sans on a
Macintosh llci using Quark Xpress 3.0. Printed by Great Lakes
Graphics, Inc., Skokie, Illinois

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Robinson, Jontyle T, 1947—

The art of Archibald J. Motley, Jr. / by Jontyle T. Robinson and
Wendy Greenhouse: with an introduction by Floyd Coleman,
p. cm.

Accompanies an exhibition by the Chicago Historical Society.
Includes index.

ISBN 0-913820-15-6: $24.95

I. Motley, Archibald John, 1891-

—Exhibitions I. Greenhouse, Wendy.

II. Motley, Archibald John, 1891-.

III. Chicago Historical Society. IV. Title
ND237.M8524A4 1991

759.13—dc20 91-28552

CIP

Contents

xi Foreword

Susan Page Tillett

xv Introduction
Floyd Coleman

i The Life of Archibald J. Motley, Jr.
Jontyle Theresa Robinson

33 Motley’s Chicago Context: 1890-1940
Wendy Greenhouse

65 Catalogue of the Exhibition
145 Checklist of Other Known Works
149 Chronology of the Artist’s Life
iso Selected List of Exhibitions
155 Bibliography of Works Cited
160 Index

Ackland Art Museum, The University of North Carolina

The following individuals and

at Chapel Hill, Burton Emmett Collection

Mr. and Mrs. Terrence L. Bailey

Atlanta University Collection of Afro-American Art

at Clark Atlanta University

Camille O. and William H. Cosby, Jr.

Judge Norma Y. Dotson

Charlotte C. Duplessis

INSTITUTIONS HAVE GENEROUSLY

DuSable Museum of African American History

LENT TO THIS EXHIBITION:

Walter O. Evans, M.D.

Carroll Greene

Hampton University Museum

Deborah Gwin Hill

William Watson Hines III

Sharon Y. Holland

Howard University Gallery of Art

Corrine Jennings

Dr. Harmon and Harriet Kelley

Collection of R. F. Lewis

Denise A. LaMonte-Smith

Norma Worthington LaMonte

Archie Motley and Valerie Gerrard Browne

The Saint Louis Art Museum

Art & Artifacts Division, Schomburg Center for Research in

Black Culture, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox

and Tilden Foundations

The School of the Art Institute of Chicago

Bernice M. Shields

South Side Community Art Center

United States Postal Service

Western Illinois University Art Gallery/Museum

Mrs. Frederica Westbrooke

This exhibition is sponsored by:

Lila Wallace—Reader’s Digest Fund

Additional support

HAS BEEN RECEIVED FROM: THE AT&T FOUNDATION

Aon Corporation

National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency

Illinois Arts Council, a state agency

John H. and Eunice W. Johnson

John Nuveen & Company

Reginald F. Lewis Foundation

Foreword

he first time I saw a group of paintings by Archibald J. Motley, Jr., I
was immediately drawn to them. The vitality of the images and the artist’s
love of his subject and his medium were evident in each canvas. The idea
of organizing a retrospective exhibition of his work at the Chicago Historical
Society is inseparable in my memory from my first encounter with Motley.

Archie Motley, the artist’s only child and the Society’s curator of archives and
manuscripts, introduced me to his father’s work soon after I joined the Society’s staff in
1987. Perhaps because he knew that my background was in American studies and much
of my professional experience in art museums, Archie began to talk to me about our
common interest in twentieth-century art. After a few months he invited me to see the
many paintings by his father that hang in his Evanston home. I knew that his father was a
painter with a growing reputation for scenes of black nightlife, but because of Archie’s
modesty I was unprepared for the depth and quality of the work. I was immediately
struck with Motley’s sheer ability to paint, visible in the student exercises in which he
seems to be solving a problem, the sensitive portraits of family members, and the vibrant
Bronzeville scenes.

I was fascinated to find that he received his formal training at the School of the Art
Institute of Chicago and then applied that training to the world he saw around him.
Although Motley was by all accounts a reserved man, through his paintings we see him
wrestling with the issues of his own identity as a black artist living in both the black and
white worlds of the twentieth century. His subject matter encompasses African legends,
portraits of African-Americans, the rural South, Paris in the 1920s, the pool halls and
street scenes of Chicago’s black community, murals of historical events and figures for the
WPA, and a few works that deal with the relationship between the races.

Motley’s life also offers a rich subject for examination, and one that I feel is particu¬
larly appropriate to the Chicago Historical Society at this point in its development. Not
only did Motley live and work in Chicago for most of his life, but he also chose to paint
the city and its people. His own identity, his feelings about Chicago, and the issue of race
still confront us today as we, as an institution and a society, try to come to terms with
our own identity and our relationship to Chicago’s diverse populations.

Archie was receptive to the idea of the Chicago Historical Society organizing an
exhibition about his father’s art but pointed out that we did not have the necessary cura¬
torial staff in place. He put me in touch with Jontyle Theresa Robinson, then assistant

xi

THE ART OF ARCHIBALD j. MOTLEY, JR.

professor of art history at Winthrop College, who had devoted several years to
researching and locating the approximately one hundred Motley canvases known to
exist. Jontyle’s long-standing interest in Motley grew as she helped to organize the exhibi¬
tion “Three Masters” at the Kenkeleba Gallery in New York in 1988, which represented
the largest assembly of Motley works since the artist’s death in 1981. Jontyle had her
own dream of seeing Motley’s work receive both critical consideration and wide public
visibility through a major retrospective exhibition and catalogue, but did not have an insti¬
tutional affiliation to make this possible. In 1987 we began exploring how a Motley exhi¬
bition could be put together.

At that same time, the Society was fortunate to hire Wendy Greenhouse, who was
finishing her doctoral dissertation at Yale, as curator of paintings and sculpture. Wendy
was interested in the combination of art historical analysis and social history that would
allow us to put an artist such as Motley in a broad context.

Wendy and Jontyle each brought valuable and unique talents to the project.
Following the successful institutional model of pairing academics with curators, we
teamed them up as co-curators of “The Art of Archibald J. Motley, Jr.” The three years
since that partnership began have seen the birth of a daughter and a change of job for
each of them, but they have continued to bring their expertise to the project. We are
deeply indebted to them for bringing the works together and for this catalogue, which
will be invaluable to future scholars researching Motley, Chicago, and black art. Jontyle’s
years of gathering information resulted in the compilation of historical data for each piece
in the catalogue of the exhibition and a biographical essay that provides insights into the
relationship between the artist’s life and his work. Wendy’s extensive research on the
history of the city and particularly on other artists working during Motley’s career allows
us to see the artist in the context of Chicago from 1890 to 1940. Drawing upon all of the
sources available as well as her own visual response to the works, Wendy also wrote the
interpretations of each piece that appear as catalogue entries in this volume and as label
text in the exhibition.

One of the greatest pleasures in directing this project has been watching it grow
over the past four years. An ever-widening group of people became involved with all
aspects from research to fund-raising. The project has been greeted with universal
enthusiasm and generous support throughout the Society and has been shaped by the
many talented people involved.

On behalf of Jontyle Robinson and Wendy Greenhouse, I would like to thank
Donald and Tritobia Benjamin, Diedre Bibby, Margaret Burroughs, Claude L. and Nell
Grovey Cole, Thomas Cole, Floyd Coleman, Tina Dunkley, Carroll Greene, James R.
Grossman, Ethel Nathan Grovey, R. R. Grovey, Dana Hamilton, The Bess L. Harper
Estate, Bonny Ebumbu Eboule Gabin Jacques, Bronislaus Janulis, Cecelia Jeffries, Jacob
Lawrence, Marvin and Catherine Lewis, Lydia Litwin, Michael Lomax, Richard Long, Alan
Mandel, Jacqueline S. Marshall, Garett McCoy, Margaret Miller, Lev Mills, E. J.
Montgomery, Kelly Morris, Veronica Njoku, Susan Noble, Charles Page, Jim Parker,
Susan Perry, Tamara Plummer, Deborah Bailey Poole, Richard Powell, Edsel Reid,

xii

FORWARD

Freddie A. Robinson, Frederick Robinson (Salim Malik), Earl Robinson, Praylor Robinson,

Prajjon Nicole Robinson, Bill Sanders, Gerald Sanders, Beth Sarantos, Rick Strilky, the
Smithsonian Institution, Esther Sparks, Spelman College’s Bush Foundation Grant for
Faculty Development, John J. Treanor, Susan Weininger, Shirley Woodson, West
Virginia State College, Winthrop College, and Faye Wrubel.

Motley’s works are widely dispersed throughout public and private collections. The
excitement of seeing the paintings together for the first time and the opportunity this pro¬
vides to trace Motley’s career would not be possible without the extraordinary generosi¬
ty of the twenty-eight lenders, who are recognized earlier in this catalogue. For giving up
their paintings for nearly two years, we offer them our heartfelt thanks.

Members of the Motley family made the exhibition possible, not only through their
loans, but also by providing valuable information about the artist. We greatly appreciate
the assistance of Mr. and Mrs. Terrence L. Bailey, Judge Norma Y. Dotson, Charlotte C.

Duplessis, Deborah Gwin Hill, Sharon Y. Holland, Norma Worthington LaMonte,

Denise A. LaMonte-Smith, the late Mrs. Flossie Moore, Archie Motley and Valerie
Gerrard Brown, and Mrs. Frederica Westbrooke.

From the beginning of the project there has been a consensus among the Chicago
Historical Society staff that this is an exhibition that should be done and done well.

Virtually every member of the staff contributes to an exhibition of this size, and for their
creativity, professionalism, and generosity of spirit, I am very grateful.

For the past year, a team of staff members has devoted tremendous energies to the
project and deserves special recognition: Riva Feshbach, assistant curator of paintings and
sculpture, for cheerfully managing the details of the exhibition on a daily basis; Russell
Lewis, director of publications, and Rosemary Adams, assistant editor, for skillful concep¬
tualization and realization of the catalogue and labels; and Andrew Leo, director of
design, and Bill Van Nimwegen, graphic designer, for their elegant design.

Thanks also to the many staff members who contributed their considerable profes¬
sional abilities in specific areas: Mary Janzen, assistant to the president, for her early
encouragement and successful grant writing; John Alderson, photographer, and Jay
Crawford, assistant photographer, for documenting the works on the road and in the
studio; Carol Turchan, conservator, for her careful treatment of archival material;

Lorraine Mason, curatorial secretary, for keeping us organized; Louise Brownell, regis¬
trar, for arranging the many details of the tour; Pat Kremer, public relations manager, for
enthusiastically spreading the word about the exhibition; Marc Hilton, former vice-presi¬
dent of development, Joe Sopcich, director of development, and Barbara Reed, corpora¬
tion/foundation manager, for their creative and effective fund-raising; Amina Dickerson,
director of education and public programs, Lynn McRainey, associate educator, and Eva
Olson, former associate educator, for planning a rich array of programs; Beth Hubbartt,
museum store manager, for her creativity; Janice McNeill, librarian, and her staff for their
research assistance; Ralph Pugh, assistant curator of archives and manuscripts, and Corey
Seeman, archives and manuscripts assistant; Ted Gibbs, assistant designer; Myron

Freedman, preparator; Judy Sponsler, publications assistant; Joyesha Bhattacharya, Felicia xiii

THE ART OF ARCHIBALD j. MOTLEY, JR.

McNeil, and Christina Durr, publications interns; and finally, Archie Motley for balancing
his dual role as archivist and son of the artist so beautifully.

Special recognition goes, as it does for each exhibition, to Ellsworth H. Brown,
president and director, for his unfailing support of the project. He recognized the poten¬
tial of Motley’s work to help the Society achieve its mission of reaching new audiences
and interpreting the life of the city to them. To that end, he worked tirelessly with trustee
Sharon Gist Gilliam and members of the development department to form a volunteer
committee of community leaders to raise funds and pave the way for this exhibition. Our
thanks goes to members of this illustrious committee, each of whom contributed their
time, talents, and skills: Lerone Bennett, Jr., Peter C. B. Bynoe, Johnnetta B. Cole, John
H. and Eunice W. Johnson, Allison S. Davis, John Hope Franklin, Daryl F. Grisham, Elzie
L. Higginbottom, Mrs. Jetta Jones, Mrs. Josephine B. Minow, Mrs. Isobel Neal, Mrs.
Judith Neisser, Madeline Murphy Rabb, Mrs. Sandra Rand, Mrs. Dorothy Runner, and
Dempsey Travis. Johnnetta Cole, president of Spelman College, where Jontyle Robinson
now teaches, has been a special friend to the project, having traveled several hundred
miles to meet with the committee and offer her assistance to the staff.

We are particularly pleased that the funding of the exhibition represents a collabora¬
tion of foundation, corporate, and government support. The Lila Wallace—Reader’s
Digest Fund has been a generous and enthusiastic supporter of the project in the role of
the exhibition’s major sponsor. The AT&T Foundation helped underwrite the Chicago
Historical Society’s installation of the exhibition, as well as the three venues of the nation¬
al tour. The Aon Corporation generously answered the Advisory Committee’s request
for funds. Grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency, and the
Illinois Arts Council, a state agency, have lent a strong endorsement to our first major
painting exhibition in recent years. Further support for the exhibition has been provided
by John H. and Eunice W. Johnson, the Reginald F. Lewis Foundation, and John Nuveen
& Company.

We are pleased that “The Art of Archibald J. Motley, Jr.’’ will be seen by thousands
of people nationwide as it travels to the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Georgia Pacific
Branch of the High Museum, and the Corcoran Gallery of Art. We extend our thanks to
the staff of each of these museums and their sponsors for hosting the exhibition in their
communities.

Susan Page Tillett

Director of Curatorial Affairs and Project Director

xiv

Introduction

D n 1956, as a freshmen art major at Alabama State College (now
University), I became aware of the art of Archibald J. Motley, Jr., through
reproductions of Playing Poker and The Liar, works included in James A.
Porter’s Modern Negro Art. Although the paintings were presented as
small black-and-white reproductions, Motley’s sure composition and
engaging dramatic narrative forcefully came alive. Often thereafter I returned to Porter’s
book because it reminded me that black artists had existed in North America for many
generations.

That there were black artists other than Henry Ossawa Tanner was an amazing dis¬
covery for me, a seventeen-year-old from Alabama’s Black Belt. In the black public
schools of Hale County, where the sessions were split because in the spring the cotton
had to be cultivated and in the fall the crops had to be harvested, there were no art
courses in the curriculum. Thus, to be in college studying with an artist such as Hayward
L. Oubre was a new and exciting experience. In Professor Oubre’s design and painting
classes we discussed and analyzed the works of Motley, Richmond Barthe, Aaron
Douglas, Hale Woodruff, Lois Mailou Jones, Augusta Savage, Elizabeth Catlett, and
Charles White, among others.

In 1962, I began to study more about Motley’s life and work while teaching a
humanities course at Clark College in Atlanta, Georgia. At this time I was able to see
Motley’s work in the larger context of American art and to note specifically that Motley
was among the artists of the 1920s who consistently depicted African-Americans in a pos¬
itive manner. He produced memorable paintings, such as Blues and The Plotters, that cap¬
tured the energy and character of black urban life. Motley did not sanitize his subjects,
nor did he present grotesque stereotypes. Instead he created authentic images that were
compelling manifestations of the creative spirit of the African-American folk. He depicted
the black community, as Jontyle Theresa Robinson so aptly maintained, “not as a critic or
moralist, but as a recorder reporting with eyes and brush the diversity and universality of
the Black experience.” 1

Motley’s family was part of the vanguard of the Great Migration of African-
Americans from the South to the North in the early twentieth century. Moving from
New Orleans to Chicago, the Motley family joined the tens of thousands of African-
Americans who settled in the Midwest and the Northeast and changed forever the
African-American’s role in American society. For the first time in the western hemisphere,

XV

THE ART OF ARCHIBALD J. MOTLEY, JR.

a large and diverse black urban community with a unique cultural dynamic developed, far
removed from the once prevailing rural environment.

Archibald Motley’s art must be considered in light of the changes that had and were
taking place in cities across the United States, particularly the remarkable culmination of
creative activity centered in the 1920s in New York City—-the Harlem Renaissance.

The philosopher and mentor of this movement was Alain Locke, who urged black
artists of that era to turn to their African heritage for inspiration. Locke believed that if
young black artists learned the discipline and the technical mastery of classical African art,
they would create a more original art.

While studying for my Ph.D. at the University of Georgia, I began to examine the
works of black artists and their specific relationship to traditional African art and culture.
Again, Archibald Motley figured prominently in this query. Motley extolled his African
ancestry, calling attention to his “pygmy grandmother.” He was one of the first black
artists to explore such subject matter, predating his Harlem Renaissance confederates and
the artist heirs to that movement. His Kikuyu God of Fire antedates Sargent Johnson’s
Mask (1933), Palmer Hayden’s Fetiche et Fleurs (1933), Lois Mailou Jones’s Ascent
Ethiopia (1932) and Malvin Gray Johnson’s Self-Portrait (1934). Only works such as Meta
Warrick Fuller’s Ethiopia Awakening (1914) and Aaron Douglas’s illustrations for Alain
Locke’s The New Negro (1925), the virtual manifesto of the Harlem Renaissance, preced¬
ed Motley’s treatment of African themes.

I had the privilege of meeting Archibald Motley in April, 1972, at the annual meeting
of the National Conference of Artists (NCA) in Chicago. It was a rare treat to talk briefly
with Motley and to share the dais with him and the other officers of the NCA. Although
Motley was over eighty years old, he was still a striking figure. Without the aid of notes,
he spoke eloquently to this group of mostly black artists, art educators, and art historians
about art and about his life as an artist. Here, in the city that had embraced him from the
time that he was a student at the School of the Art Institute, Motley was a commanding
presence, confirming what I had already gleaned from images and texts: he possessed an
uncommon talent and an indomitable spirit.

Floyd Coleman

Owen Duston Distinguished Professor of Art, Wabash College
Chair, Department of Art, Howard University

xvi

I. Jontyle Theresa Robinson, ‘Archibald John Motley, Jr.: A Notable Anniversary for a Pioneer,” in Three Masters: Eldizer
Cortor, Hughie Lee Smith, Archibald J. Motley, Jr., (New York: Kenkeleba House, Inc., 1988), 45.

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The Life of Archibald J. Motley, Jr

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he life and career of Archibald J. Motley, Jr., in its bare outline encompass¬
es themes familiar to the lives of countless other artists: academic training
at a prestigious art school, a period of economic struggle and personal
frustration while maturing as an artist, critical acclaim and national recogni¬
tion, and finally, a fall into obscurity. But a survey of the more than one
hundred extant Motley paintings reveals a rare and unusually gifted artist whose work is
among the best of its time. An astute observer of the world around him, Motley
eschewed grand social theories and political agendas; his goal was simply to record his
world as completely and as honestly as he could. As a result, Motley’s images of the
familiar faces and places of his surroundings are charged with insight and verve.
Incorporating into his paintings his fascination with natural and artificial light, his modernist
sense of color, and his deep respect for the heritage of African-Americans, Motley’s oeu¬
vre is a compelling record of twentieth-century black urban life.

Motley was a working artist in Chicago for more than fifty years. He began his
career as a portraitist in the late 1910s and 1920s, and during this time he also painted
canvases that explored his African ancestry and his southern Creole heritage. After a brief
stay in Paris in 1929-30 as a Guggenheim fellow, Motley returned to Chicago, where he
painted some of his most memorable Bronzeville scenes and numerous works for vari¬
ous federally sponsored arts projects during the 1930s and 1940s. In the 1950s Motley
shifted his artistic focus to Mexico, but by the 1960s, most of the few paintings he com¬
pleted, again focus on familiar themes of black life in Chicago.

Fig. I. Archibald J. Motley, Jr., Chicago, c. 1950.
Collection of Archie Motley and Valerie Gerrard
Browne.

Early Life

Louisiana’s extraordinary mixture of French and African history, language, music, and
people was a strong influence on Archibald J. Motley, Jr., throughout his life. Born in New
Orleans on October 7, 1891, Motley lived in Louisiana for less than two years before his
family settled in Chicago after brief residences in St. Louis and Buffalo. As a child Motley
and his sister Flossie regularly visited Louisiana in the summer months to attend school
and to renew ties with relatives. His southern kin introduced him to his family’s rich
Creole ancestry and instilled in him curiosity and fascination with his African heritage. 1
Motley was especially close to his maternal grandmother, Harriet Huff, who, according to
family oral history, “was a Pygmy from former British East Africa, a little bit of a person,

very small . . . about 4 feet 8 or 9 inches’’ tall, who had been a slave in Tennessee and I

THE ART OF ARCHIBALD j. MOTLEY, JR.

Louisiana. Throughout his career as an artist, Archibald J. Motley, Jr., revisited these cul¬

tures and his family’s place in them, exploring in his paintings their meaning for twentieth-
century black urban life.

Motley lived in Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood on the city’s South Side for
most of his childhood and adult life. Originally a railroad depot with a few scattered hous¬
es along the tracks, Englewood prospered during the World’s Columbian Exposition
building boom, and Motley and his family experienced this development first hand. 2
Motley’s parents, educated middle-class African-Americans, left the South in the 1890s
for better opportunities in the North. Mary F Motley (fig. 5) was a school teacher, and
Archibald J. Motley, Sr. (fig. 4), was a Pullman Porter (one of the more prestigious jobs

available to blacks), and he was an early supporter and a militant member of the

Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. The Motleys were one of the few black families liv¬
ing in the community, which was populated largely by people of German, Irish, Swedish,
English, Welsh, and Dutch ancestry. Motley apparently had a normal childhood with only
isolated incidents of racial discrimination. 3 All of his schoolmates and playmates were
white, and Motley recalled that during his youth relations among the various ethnic

groups were very congenial. 4 Raised by his parents in the Catholic faith, Motley attended

the Mission Church of St. Brendan with which he had an association that spanned
decades.

As early as the fifth grade, drawing held special pleasure for Motley. Recognizing his
interest and talent, his teachers encouraged him to draw block forms, and colored vases,
bowls, and flowers; Motley also helped classmates with their drawings. By the seventh

Fig. 2. Archibald J. Motley, Jr., c. 1892, New
Orleans, Louisiana. Collection of Archie Motley
and Valerie Gerrard Browne.

grade, he “began using . . . textbooks as sketch pads making . . . sketches of his class¬

mates and drawings from memory of many things [he] had
seen.” Motley recalled that “some of my teachers were quite
lenient and allowed me to deface the textbooks so long as I
knew my lessons altho some were not appreciative of my art
and punished me for defacing school property.” 5 Especially
intrigued by the lives of black people, Motley sought them out

r

and punished me for defacing school property.” 5
intrigued by the lives of black people, Motley sought
as subjects for his sketches:

When I was in the fifth grade at school there was a pool room around the
corner from school . . . Ricks ... I used to take my lunch, go over there,
sit in the pool room so I could study all those characters in there. There
was nothing but colored men there. The owner was colored. I used to sit

Fig. 3. Archibald. J. Motley, Jr., when he was a
student at Nicholas Copernicus School, Chicago,
c. 1906. Collection of Archie Motley and Valerie
Gerrard Browne.

there and study them and I found they had such a peculiar and such a
wonderful sense of humor and the way they said things, and the way they
talked, the way that they expressed themselves you’d just die laughing. I
used to make sketches even when I was a kid then. 6

Attracted to black urban life, Motley trekked north of Englewood to the vicinity of
Thirty-fifth and State streets, where he could lose himself among the throngs of African-
Americans along “the Stroll," Chicago’s most colorful stretch of black culture. The Stroll,
a strip of State Street between Twenty-sixth and Thirty-ninth streets, featured jazz spots,

2

THE LIFE OF ARCHIBALD J. MOTLEY, JR.

movie theaters, and dance halls. Motley reveled in the energy, colors, characters, and
rhythms of the street. In the surrounding areas along Prairie Avenue and Indiana and
Calumet streets, Motley found other expressions of black life in churches and sporting
and gambling houses. 7 Motley was an keen observer of this world, and it inspired him to
record African-Americans and their heritage and culture as no other artist had before.

Motley worked at a number of part-time jobs after he graduated from elementary
school, including shining shoes, porterage for a barber shop, and a variety of tasks for the
Michigan Central Railroad (probably working with his father). 8 By the time he entered
high school in 1909 at the age of eighteen, he was eager to pursue a full program of
artistic training. At Englewood High School he received instruction in lettering, free-hand
drawing, charcoal and chalk sketching, and the fundamentals of mechanical drawing,
which gave students a working knowledge of perspective. In addition to this technical
coursework, Englewood teachers instilled in him an “appreciation of the things of beauty
and development of a taste that discriminates between the superior and the common¬
place.” 9 Motley no doubt studied the works of art that adorned the school’s corridors.
Particularly noteworthy was Lorado Taft’s 125-foot-long plaster cast of the Parthenon
frieze, which was installed over the main entrance of the first floor. Taft made several
casts of the work, originally created for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, and he
presented one to the school.

The arts were not Motley’s only interest in high school. A talented athlete, Motley
was a member of the school’s football and baseball teams (fig. 6) and also played first
base for the Royal Giants semipro baseball team on weekends. Motley combined his
interest in art and sports in a series of posters depicting the competitive sports that were
played at Englewood. 10 He and Edith Granzo, his neighbor and future wife, who was
white and of German stock, dated during their years at Englewood High School.
Although overt racism did not predominate in Englewood, interracial relationships were
still considered taboo; Edith and Archibald courted discreetly. 11

The Art Student

After graduating from high school in 1914, Motley enrolled in the School of the Art
Institute of Chicago. He had originally been offered a full scholarship to study architecture
at Chicago’s Armour Institute by its president, Frank Gunsaulas, who had become
acquainted with Archibald J. Motley, Sr. Even though young Motley turned down this
generous offer, Gunsaulas was impressed enough with him to pay his first year’s tuition at
the Art Institute. Motley’s thorough practical training in Englewood’s art department was
excellent preparation for the school’s rigorous program. 12 Its four-year curriculum includ¬
ed drawing in charcoal, pen-and-ink work, painting in watercolor and oil, drawing nudes
and portraits, a complete study of composition in black-and-white and color, the study of
perspective and anatomy (which included human bone structure and muscles), still life
painting, portrait painting, cast drawing, and figure sketching.

Motley’s life as a student was not easy. His strong grades during his first year of study
had earned him a job the following year, which paid his tuition and a weekly stipend of fif-

Fig. 4. Archibald J. Motley, Sr. Collection of
Archie Motley and Valerie Gerrard Browne.

Fig. 5. Mary F. Motley. Collection of Archie
Motley and Valerie Gerrard Browne. 3

THE ART OF ARCHIBALD j. MOTLEY, JR.

Fig. 6 (top). The 1912 Englewood High School
football team. Archibald J. Motley, Jr. is fourth
from the right. CHS, Prints and Photographs
Collection, ICHi-22831.

Fig. 7. Archibald J. Motley, Jr., 1913. Collection
of Archie Motley and Valerie Gerrard Browne.

teen dollars. During his second year, he was out of bed by 5:00 a.m. and off to school to
clean and dust statuary in the galleries, his tuition job, before classes began at 9:00 a.m.
He painted nudes until noon and portraits from 1:00 rm. to 4:00 rm. After classes he

worked an hour or more at school and
worked at home on assigned composi¬
tions until 2:00 a.m. or 3:00 a.m . 13

Motley enrolled in the Department
of Painting and Illustration. The advanced
classes were the life (figure, both cos¬
tumed and nude, and head) drawing and
painting courses. Although he thoroughly
immersed himself in drawing and painting
the human form, composition interested
Motley most of all. Motley studied black-
and-white composition with Albert
Krehbiel (1873-1945) and color composition with George Walcott. They taught Motley
to appreciate the subtleties of lighting and introduced him to techniques to achieve a
wide range of effects, lessons the artist would draw upon to create some of the most
exciting works of his career. Krehbiel had his students work first using only three values—
white, gray, and black—and then advance to four and to five values, alternating from light
to dark. 14 Under Walcott’s instruction, Motley had to prepare for each oil painting with
numerous sketches exploring harmony, perspective, and anatomy. Walcott then asked
his students to consider the treatment of light throughout the painting. As part of his
exercises, Motley had to solve various lighting problems, such as the effect of sunlight,
rain, snow, or the play of cool moonlight in contrast to warm artificial light. “If your artifi¬
cial light is stronger than your half-tones,” Motley recalled from his Art Institute instruc¬
tion, then “shadows will be warmer and the reverse if your moonlight is more promi¬
nent.” 15 After his student days, Motley continued to study examples of lighting, composi¬
tion, and portraiture in the Art Institute’s collection, which he visited regularly. “The best
example I have seen of [artificial interior] lighting is Nighthawks by the American painter
Edward Hopper. . .” 16

Motley worked very hard to master Walcott's and Krehbiel’s composition instruc¬
tion, and he won honorable mention awards from the school’s faculty for his work in
junior composition and composition classes. But he was also a talented portrait painter
who excelled under the tutelage of Karl Buehr (1866-1952), his instructor in figure and
portrait painting (Motley also won an honorable mention for his work from charcoal life
studies class). Buehr stressed the relationship of value, color, and tone in the play of light
in a painting. In his students’ paintings, he looked for a study of flesh tones, an emphasis
on textures, and attention to reflections, ranging from the hard shiny surfaces of brass, sil¬
ver, copper, or wood to dull surfaces, such as soft cloth. The Chef (c. 1916-18, cat. no.
I) and Seated Nude (c. 1916-18, cat. no. 2) are typical of Motley’s student work. The
Chef, an exercise in combining portrait and still life, shows the influence of Buehr in the

THE LIFE OF ARCHIBALD J. MOTLEY, JR.

variety of reflective surfaces Motley employs. In addition to Walcott, Krehbiel, and Buehr,
Motley studied with John Norton (1876-1934) whose interest in murals (he painted
murals for the Daily News Building and Midway Gardens among other commissions)
may have inspired Motley to work in this medium in later years.

While at the Art Institute, Motley became very close friends with two other stu¬
dents: Russian-born William Schwartz (1896-1977) and Czechoslovakian-born Joseph
Tomanek (1889-?). Known as the “Big Three,” the young art students were very sup¬
portive of each other, and they often worked together on weekends and holidays at
Tomanek’s studio. 17 Tomanek made frames for Motley’s paintings and encouraged him to
submit his Portrait of My Mother (1919, cat. no. 4), to the annual exhibition of Chicago
area artists when Motley’s own confidence in his work flagged.

Motley regularly viewed the Art Institute’s collection of American painters, and he
was especially fond of the work of John Sloan, Randall Davey, and George Bellows.
Bellows, a member of the Ashcan School, a group of artists who pioneered the realistic
portrayal of the urban scene, taught at the Art Institute for a term in 1919, and Motley
returned after graduating to sit in on the class. Motley was probably familiar with two of
Davey’s works in the collection, The Flower and Portrait of a Lady , and he must have also
seen Bellows’ Love of Winter and The Village Houses during his student days. Among
European works at the Art Institute, Motley was especially taken with George S. Seurat’s
Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, to which Motley later paid tribute in his
Lawn Party (c. 1937, cat. no. 45).

Fig. 8. Archibald J. Motley Jr., front row, far
right, with painting students at the School of the
Art Institute, c. 19IV. CHS, Prints and
Photographs Collection.

5

THE ART OF ARCHIBALD j. MOTLEY, JR.

Portraiture

The years following his graduation from art school in 1918 were difficult for Motley. The
relatively tolerant environment of Englewood had buffered him from experiencing
widespread discrimination while he was growing up, but Motley felt the consequences of
racism on two occasions soon after leaving the Art Institute. Confident that his training
had prepared him for a career as an artist, Motley applied for a commercial artist job
downtown. The position was offered instead to a white fellow student who was, accord¬
ing to Motley, much less qualified than him. 18 The 1919 Race Riot, which rocked
Chicago’s South Side with violence and destruction over a six-day period, frightened
Motley and his family, who had never felt such inflammatory racial tensions. The Motleys
sequestered themselves in their Englewood home, where white neighbors protected
them and took care of their needs through the duration of the incident. 19

Unable to find work as an artist, Motley continued to work odd jobs—steamfitter,
coal heaver, plumber, and waiter—and pursue painting whenever he had time. 20
Although he had been stung several times by racial prejudice, Motley was not embittered
by these experiences. Motivated by his belief that black life and culture was intrinsically
interesting and by the realization that African-Americans had not been depicted honestly
or with any regularity by American artists, Motley made a conscious decision during this
period to paint only black subject matter. Through his art Motley hoped to break down
stereotypes of blacks and to promote appreciation for and present a true perspective on
the full gamut of people who considered themselves Negroes. Motley had already been
moving toward this goal in art school, suggesting that the Art Institute use black models in
class. 21 Writing some years later on this issue, Motley expressed the philosophy he had
formed as a young student and would follow throughout his life:

For years many artists have depicted the Negro as the ignorant southern
“darky,” to be portrayed on canvas as something humorous; an old south¬
ern black Negro gulping a large piece of watermelon; one with a banjo on
his knee; possibly a “crap-shooter” or a cottonpicker or a chicken thief.

This material is obsolete and I sincerely hope with the progress the Negro
has made he is deserving to be represented in his true perspective, with
dignity, honesty, integrity, intelligence and understanding. Progress is not
made by going backward. The Negro is no more the lazy, happy go lucky,
shiftless person he was shortly after the Civil War. Progress has changed all
of this. In my paintings I have tried to paint the Negro as I have seen him
and as I feel him, in myself without adding or detracting, just being frankly
honest. 22

Motley’s earliest attempts to create an authentic depiction of African-Americans took
the form of portraits. Between 1919 and 1931, he painted portraits of members of his
family and a series of black women of mixed racial ancestry. Inexperienced and lacking an
adequate portfolio to attract patrons to commission portraits, Motley turned to his family,
who were available and supportive of his efforts, for his first subjects. Through family
portraits Motley explored his African and Creole heritages as part of the search for racial

6

THE LIFE OF ARCHIBALD j. MOTLEY, JR.

identity that preoccupied many black artists and intellectuals of his generation. Motley’s
own mixed ancestry and his fascination with the variety of skin color of black people led
him to undertake what he called a “scientific” 23 inquiry into mulattoes, quadroons, and
octoroons. Through these portraits Motley hoped to expand Americans’ understanding
of race and to help them appreciate the wide spectrum of black culture and character.

These early portraits fall into two groups: those in which the figure is set against a
plain background, which focuses the viewer’s attention on a subject who looks straight
out of the painting; and those whose figure is placed within a domestic setting filled with
representative or symbolic objects. Although these early works reflect Motley’s formal
training at the Art Institute and follow the conventions of American portraiture, they are
particularly important because they apply these techniques to black subjects, resulting in
portraits rather than stereotypes. 24

Rita (c. 1918, cat. no. 3), the earliest portrait of this group of paintings, depicts
Motley’s niece, Flossie Motley’s young daughter, a sickly child who died from diphtheria
in 1927. The only child portrait Motley did in his career, it shows Rita’s head and upper
body almost filling the canvas as if the artist were trying to compensate for her small
stature or the small dimensions of the canvas (this 17 I /8-by-14 I/4-inch painting is in
fact Motley’s smallest finished work). Rita is stopped only momentarily, focused outward
with childlike intensity before disappearing in a blur of activity. Full of kinetic energy, Rita is
a haunting figure who draws the viewer in close to her as if to hear her speak. Although
Motley came to be an accomplished colorist, his color scheme for Rita, browns and
blacks, reflects the limited palette of his student exercises. Only the bright red hair bow
hints at what is to come.

Rita is the exception in this group of family portraits. The other portraits are quiet,
almost solemn in character. Depicting their sitters as highly dignified people, these por¬
traits convey Motley’s deep respect for the elders of his family. Portrait of My Mother
(1919) is a tightly rendered representation of Mary F Motley that captures the artist’s
deep respect for his mother. The freer, more expressive form and immediacy of Rita are
replaced by precise brushwork, a still posture, and respectful distance. The somber
palette is illuminated by her glowing honey-colored skin and the red accent of the pen¬
dant she wears. The dark background and clothing sharply contrast with her light skin and
focuses attention on the hands, which appear relaxed and comfortable compared to her
overall stiff posture. Here and in other paintings, Motley makes hands an expressive ele¬
ment of the portrait. 25

Perhaps Motley’s most revealing portrait of this period is his Self-Portrait (c. 1920 cat.
no. 6). This painting captures the young artist in transition from student to professional.
Appearing dapper but self-conscious, he surrounds himself with the tools of his trade—
the array of brushes and the vibrant color and impasto of the palette indicating the color
and life about to burst forth.

In Portrait of The Artist’s Father (c. 1921, cat. no. 7) Motley depicts his father as a
learned man pondering a passage in the book he holds, gazing at the viewer with a stern
but dignified visage. Archibald J. Motley, Sr., appears surrounded by symbols of his past.

Fig. 9. From left to right: unidentified, Willard
Motley, Mary F. Motley, Rita Motley, and
Archibald J. Motley, Jr. Collection of Archie
Motley and Valerie Gerrard Browne.

7

THE ART OF ARCHIBALD j. MOTLEY, JR.

Fig. 10 . Edith Gronzo. Collection of Archie
Motley and Valerie Gerrard Browne.

8

The painting of a farm scene in the background recalls his father’s humble rural southern
origins, while the books and figurine represent his solid middle-class standing and more
sophisticated life in the urban North. The father’s hand, holding a cigar that juts forward
toward the viewer and appears exaggerated in size, appears relaxed and at ease com¬
pared to his otherwise formal appearance. Although Motley is beginning to experiment
with more complex and interesting lighting in this painting, he has not yet mastered his
command over all of these elements.

Motley painted two important portraits of his paternal grandmother, Emily Motley,
during this early period. Portrait of My Grandmother (1922, cat. no. 9) is a remarkable
painting and a milestone in Motley’s development as an artist. As in his earlier portraits, a
solemn dignity and respect for his family stands out, but here the stillness and quietness
speak volumes about the life of this elderly matriarch. In her shrunken posture, her lined
face, and her bony hands, Motley captures both the frailty and the beauty of age. Her
gnarled and crooked hands seem awkward in repose; idle hands seem not to be part of
her character. Using a patinalike gray background and full but soft lighting, Motley
achieves his most successful use of the muted palette, resulting in his brightest and most
vibrant painting to date.

In Mending Socks (1924, cat. no. 10) Motley shows a breakthrough in his ability to
create a three-dimensional space in his work. Attending to the humble task of darning
socks, Motley’s octogenarian grandmother is busy with her hands, but she appears frailer
in this portrait, perhaps because the cluttered table appears physically to overwhelm her.
The cropped oval portrait in the top left corner, a feature Motley uses in many of his
paintings, appears here for the first time. Motley’s two portraits of his grandmother
earned him critical acclaim. Grandmother was shown in the Art Institute’s 1923
"Exhibition by Artists of Chicago and Vicinity,’’ and Mending Socks was selected “best liked
painting” during The Newark Museum’s 1927 exhibition, "Paintings and Water Colors by
Living American Artists.” 26

The success and acclaim Motley received for the portraits of his grandmother was a
turning point in his career. Insecure about his future as an artist and unsure of his financial
standing, Motley had postponed marriage to Edith Granzo since his student days at the
School of the Art Institute. Motley’s decision finally to marry (they were wed on February
14, 1924) was a reflection of his new confidence in himself. But Motley made clear to
Edith that his art would come first before anything else. 27 For the nearly twenty-five years
of their marriage (Edith died in December 1948) Edith remained committed to Motley
and his work and provided both emotional and financial support when it was needed,
working a number of different jobs, including masseuse and clerical worker, to support
her family. Unable to cope with their daughter’s marriage to a black man, the Granzos
apparently disowned Edith; only a brother, Art, kept in contact. 28

Motley’s fascination with skin color was rooted in his own Louisiana-Creole her¬
itage, his sensitivity as an artist to the nuances of color, and the status American society
attributed to gradations in skin color. “Form is essential to me,” Motley wrote, "only as a
means of producing a pleasing composition; color being more important as an expres-

THE LIFE OF ARCHIBALD j. MOTLEY, JR.

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sion of the numerous shades and colors which exist in such great variety among
Negroes.” 29 His first work in a series of portraits of women of mixed racial ancestry,
Mu/atress with Figurine and Dutch Seascape (c. 1920, cat. no. 5), depicts a young woman
whose race or ethnicity is not readily evident from the painting alone. Neither her
expression, the figurine, nor the small Dutch seascape offer any clues. Though Motley’s
color scheme is not radical, it nevertheless is a bold venture away from the browns,
blacks, and grays he had favored for his family portraits.

Light in skin color himself, Motley painted another mulatress 30 (1924, checklist no. 5;
fig. II) and a quadroon (c. 1927, checklist no. 13), but he devoted several canvasses to
octoroons; he “was sincerely interested in pigmentation of the skin in regard to the light¬
est type of colored person . . . consisting of one-eighth Negro blood and seven-eighths
Caucasian blood.” 31 Motley was clearly inspired when he painted his first octoroon por¬
trait, Octoroon (1922, cat. no. 8). Captivated by her youth and her beauty, Motley adorns
this graceful, willowy woman with pearls to give her an aristocratic bearing.

Motley was especially pleased with his second octoroon portrait, The Octoroon Girl
(1925, cat. no. 12), and compared it to his painting of his grandmother. ”1 think outside of
my grandmother’s [The Octoroon Girl] is the best portrait I’ve painted.” 32 Motley painted
another octoroon portrait, Aline An Octoroon (c. 1927, checklist no. II; fig. 11), as well as
Head of a Quadroon 33 (c. 1927, checklist no. 17). In a discussion of Aline, An Octoroon
Motley wrote:

In some cases it is quite difficult to determine precisely whether or not a
person is pure Caucasian or octoroon. I have seen octoroons with skin as
white as people from northern Europe such as the Baltic countries; with
blond straight hair, blue eyes, sharp well proportioned features and
extremely thin lips. The head is normal and well constructed and symmet¬
rically balanced. The construction of the body such as an elongation of the
arms, a tendency toward a weak bone construction found in many of the
dark purer Negroes and large fat heels are nonexistent. In fact a very light
octoroon could be compared favorably with a Swedish or Norwegian per¬
son. In this painting I have tried to show that delicate one-eighth strain of
Negro blood. Therefore, I would say that this painting was not only an
artistic venture but also a scientific problem. 34

The figure in Woman Peeling Apples (1924, cat. no. I I) is a sharp contrast to
Motley’s elegant octoroons and quadroons not only in skin color but also in social class.
Her clothes are no match for the au courant fashions of these sophisticated African-
Americans, and one cannot imagine their long slender hands peeling apples. But Motley
portrays this woman with dignity and strength. Her gaze is confident, and she takes pride
in the task at hand. Motley has painted her with great sensitivity, reflecting the light off her
scarf to cast a purple hue over her face that softens her features. Although Motley did not
typically separate social classes from each other in his paintings (he tended to mix them
together), this painting shows that Motley was not ignorant of class issues in black life.

Reception (1926, cat. no. 13), which depicts a group of upper-class white women

Fig. 11. Aline, An Octoroon, (c. 1927, checklist
no. 11). From Opportunity, September, 1926.

9

THE ART OF ARCHIBALD J. MOTLEY, |R.

February 25 th through March 10 th, 1928

EXHIBITION OF PAINTINGS

BY

ARCHIBALD J. MOTLEY, JR.

600 MADISON AVENUE • NEW YORK

NOTE: The first one-man exhibition in a New York art gallery
of the work of a negro artist is, no doubt, an event of decided
interest in the annals of the American school of painting. It
seems, however, worth while to record the fact that the invita¬
tion to Mr. Motley to show his paintings at The New Gallery
was extended prior to any personal knowledge concerning him
or his lineage and solely because of his distinction as an artist.

10

Fig. 12. Cover of the catalogue for Motley one-person exhibition at the New Gallery, 1928. CHS, Archives and
Manuscripts Collection.

THE LIFE OF ARCHIBALD j. MOTLEY, JR.

being served by a black servant, is one of Motley’s earliest paintings that comments on
black-white relations. It is especially noteworthy for its play of interior lighting on the set¬
ting and Motley’s use of color. The orange lampshade, the purple window frame and
shadow on the rug, and the red light emitting from the fireplace across the rug all antici¬
pate the vibrantly colored compositions still to come. Although paintings of interior set¬
tings gave Motley the opportunity to experiment with light and color, financial return may
also have been one of Motley’s motivations for turning to paintings of everyday life.
Comparing portraiture and genre composition, Motley stated that, with the latter, “I felt
that I could build up more saleable things than I could with portraits. 35

By the mid-1920s, Motley’s exhibited paintings earned him local and national recog¬
nition as well as students for his private art lessons, which he began offering in 1926. He
showed his paintings in several of the Art Institute’s annual “Chicago and Vicinity” exhibi¬
tions, he participated in two exhibitions staged by the No-Jury Society of Artists, he was
included in the prestigious “Paintings and Water Colors by Living American Artists” exhibi¬
tion at The Newark Museum, and he showed work in several other exhibitions in Illinois
and in New York. His widest exposure and acclaim came in 1928, however, when the
New Gallery of New York City organized a one-person show of his work. Robert B.
Harshe (1879-1938), director of The Art Institute of Chicago, took a special interest in
Motley’s progress as a student. 36 Harshe, a painter, had often called Motley out of class to
visit with him in his private office, where he gave advice and information to the young
student. On a personal trip to New York in 1927, Harshe contacted two galleries about
organizing a one-person show of Motley’s works, and both expressed interest. 37 Motley
decided that George Heilman, president of the New Gallery at 600 Madison Avenue,
offered him the best terms, and he began working to complete paintings for the exhibi¬
tion. Motley exhibited twenty-six paintings at the New Gallery for two weeks, from
February 25 to March 10, 1928. 38 The exhibition included five new works that focused
on African themes, ten portraits, three works relating to black music and dance, and eight
genre scenes.

Motley undertook the African paintings at the urging of Heilman, who wrote: “My
general suggestion to you would be . . . [to] paint some pictures showing various phases
of negro life in its more dramatic aspects—scenes, perhaps, in which the voo-doo ele¬
ment as well as the cabaret element—but especially the latter—enter.” 39 Heilman clearly
recognized the sales potential of Motley’s work and directed the artist accordingly to take
advantage of the growing interest in African-Americans and the art that represented them
during the era popularly known as the Harlem Renaissance. During the Jazz Age, whites
joined black artists, writers, musicians, and intellectuals in celebrating the exuberant free¬
dom of “Negritude” and its African roots. Being black during the Jazz Age was fashion¬
able, as historian Nathan Ivin Huggins suggests:

The Jazz Age meant new behavior, new styles, new morals, and white

Americans were all to eager to break constraints of rural, puritan America.

Harlem had become the white folk’s playground and most blacks loved it.

Musicians and dancers got work at such places as the Cotton Club and

I

THE ART OF ARCHIBALD J. MOTLEY, JR.

Connie’s Inn (neither of which catered to black folks) and Small’s. Fun¬
seeking whites brought money uptown and that was good. It was also fun
for blacks to watch them act “colored.” No white visitor to New York
would consider his stay complete without an evening in Harlem. 40
Although African themes were a new direction in Motley’s work, they were not
inconsistent with his earlier work. Inspired by the many stories his grandmother Harriet
Huff passed on to him about life in East Africa, Motley drew on his African ancestry for a
series of paintings on the theme of Vodun (voo-doo) to satisfy Heilman’s request.

Wogandc [Uganda] Woman’s Dream (1927, checklist no. 10),
Waganda [Uganda] Charm-Makers (1927, checklist no. 26; fig.
13), Kikuyu God of Fire (1927, cat. no. 14), Devil-Devils (c.
1927, checklist no. 16) and Spell of the Voodoo (c. 1927,
checklist no. 25).

Kikuyu God of Fire portrays a deity who carries men into
the air and is typical of these paintings. Motley’s fire-god is an
enormous, lithe, sexless, steer-horned, and bat-eared crea¬
ture with flaring nostrils, electric green fingernails, and a half¬
open mouth from which sparks rain down on the diminutive
Kikuyu warriors and women, whose spears and cloaks cannot
shield them. Their metal weapons, gold anklets, and bracelets
glint in the light of the fire as they try to flee into the forest of
feathery palm and darker trees. It is as if Motley had caught the
essence of the human condition: frozen in flight from a terrify¬
ing yet shimmering evil, which like fire is illuminating, the fig¬
ures flee toward a safe place they will never quite reach.
Meanwhile, the awesome deity, in an ecstasy of anticipation, is
Fig. 13. Waganda [Uganda] Woman’s Dream, forever on the verge of capturing his prey. 41

(1927, checklist no. 10). From The New York Motley’s African paintings were the most controversial works in the exhibition, and

Times Magazine, March 25, 1928. the New Yorker magazine questioned the validity of the work: “For the subjective things,

boys’ imaginings of Voodooland, we do not care at all. Such things, to be real primitives,
could hardly be executed by the young man who painted the sophisticated Octoroon and
Black and Tan Cabaret." 42 Marya Mannes was especially critical of this series in her review
of the exhibition in the April 10, 1928, issue of Creative Art: “In some of his portraits and
cabaret scenes he shows considerable character and technical proficiency; in his African
voodoo fantasies and garden party idylls he suggests the cheapest, most blatant ten-
twent-thirt illustrations, brightly glazed.” 43 Only Edward Alden Jewell seemed to under¬
stand and appreciate Motley’s attempt to connect the New Negro Movement to its
ancestral roots:

Here are steaming jungles that drip and sigh and ooze, dank in the
impenetrable gloom of palm and woven tropical verdure, or ablaze with
light where the sun breaks fiercely in. Here are moons that rise, yellow
12 and round, quizzical and portentous, aureoled with a pallor or sorcery;

THE LIFE OF ARCHIBALD j. MOTLEY, JR.

crescent moons with secrets cryptically packed in the shining scimitar, and
moons that wane and die with a shudder of spent prophecy. There are
mummified heads of enemies rudely cased in clay, embellished with gaudy
colors. There are devil-devils watching in the night or poised to swoop on
not hapless human prey. There are thunders and lightnings with reverberation

riet imprisoned in their heart of death. There are charms, simple unsearchable,

>r a to lure a smile or to ravage with the hate of vampires,

sst. Glistening dusky bodies, stamping or gliding, shouting or silent, are sil-

0), houetted against hot ritual fires. Myriad age-old racial memories drift up

fig. from Africa and glowing islands of the sea to color more recent ghostly

(c. memories of plantation days when black was black and slaves were slaves;

27, and, these memories sift, finally, through Negro life in Northern cities of

the present, leaving everywhere their imprint and merging with a rich blur
nto of tribal echoes. 44

an The exhibition was a commercial and professional success; twenty-two of the twen-

ea- ty-six paintings sold. The New York Times Magazine incorrectly reported in a special boxed

alf- article on the front page of its February 25, 1928, issue that Motley’s exhibition was the

:ive first one-person exhibition of a black artist in American history. In fact, Henry Ossawa

not Tanner (1859-1937) had a one-person exhibition at the American Art Gallery in 1908.

ets But the Times report demonstrated the importance of Motley’s exhibition.

; of Even though Motley had paid a gallery commission and rental fees and helped to

the defray the cost of publishing the catalogue of the exhibition, he must have cleared

ify- between five and seven thousand dollars, a large sum in 1928. The exhibition’s success

fig- was due in part to the network the artist and the gallery owner had put together. A num-

:h. her of collectors interested in black artists and black subject matter purchased the majori-

, is ty of the paintings. Heilman presumably contacted the members of this East Coast group,

which included: Mrs. T Morris Murrray, Ralph Pultizer, Carl Hamilton, and John E. Nail. 45
ind Nail, a black real estate developer of considerable means, lived in Harlem. In a letter to

gs, the artist after the exhibition had opened, Nail discussed his views on the collecting of art:

es, As to your hope that this purchase may prove an inspiration to colored

md people to develop an appreciation for colored artists, I think this will come

5 W in time, but hardly in your generation or mine. I believe the acquisition of

,nd art objects on the part of our people is not cultivated because they are

:an things that are not sufficiently showy for their capital to be invested in like

in- automobiles or fine clothes or fine houses, but after they have sufficiently

5 r- evolved and developed a real culture, the Negro artist who has arrived will

its undoubtedly be supported. I do not think you should think so much about

any particular racial group being interested in your work. Seriously pursue
your art, and the world will be your market. 46

Harshe, intensely interested in Motley’s progress, had written personal letters with¬
out the artist’s knowledge to five of Chicago’s wealthiest African-Americans, explaining
who Motley was and why he deserved their support. The responses, which Harshe

13

THE ART OF ARCHIBALD j. MOTLEY, JR.

reluctantly showed to Motley, were insulting, shocking, and distasteful, stating in effect
that because he was a white man, Harshe should "mind his own business"; the five men
said they did not require his assistance to help them spend their money. 47 Patronage from
the African-American community was to be a passionate cause for Motley. He later
wrote bitterly:

As a Race, the present American Negroes are educated, they are literate,
they are ambitious, they are trustworthy and they are noble. But this
group is lacking that one essential qualification, that one most important,
most vital thing, (Culture). A man may be educated and still lack culture, in
the true sense and a man may be cultured and still lack education.
Therefore, why not encourage Negro Art by appreciating it, by buying it. If
the Negro artist has no market for his products; if that market is to be lim¬
ited only to a few sympathetic, philanthropic and kind gentlemen of the
other group, it means discouragement and lack of confidence in the heart
of the struggling Negro artist. Instead of literally littering our walls and our
homes; and we have many homes that compare favorably with the best in
America, smearing them with buck eyes, cheap chromos, poor copies and
purchasing works from (inferior artists) . . . why not search out those
painters of the group who are finished and capable artists and purchase
their works. 48

Although Motley’s concern for patronage was to be born out by later experience,
his New York show was a critical and popular success, and African-Americans flocked to
the gallery. The exhibition was a great event, recalled Edward Morrow, then an under¬
graduate at Yale University and an adopted nephew of Bessie Bearden, the mother of
artist Romare Bearden (1914-88). Bessie Bearden had become a powerful New York
socialite, public relations figure, and newspaper reporter. At the time of the New Gallery
exhibition she was the New York correspondent for the Defender, Chicago’s black daily
newspaper. Like other black writers, she wrote a positive review of Motley’s exhibition.
She also frequently promoted black artists, and in Motley’s honor, she planned an elabo¬
rate black tie gathering intended to give his career an additional boost. 49

In addition to Motley, Beardon had invited artists who were affiliated with the
Harlem Renaissance: sculptor Augusta Savage (1892 or 1900-62) and painters Aaron
Douglas (1899-1979), O. Richard Reid (b. 1898), Richard Bruce (Nugent) (b. 1906),
and Charles Alston (1909-79). Motley, however, did not attend the reception. Perhaps
he felt some competitive hostility from the other artists, or he may not have wanted to
be associated with the movement, no matter how innocent such a gathering might be.
According to Edward Morrow, Motley did not appear because he did not have proper
formal clothes. 50 Whatever the reason, Motley had formed his own ideas about the
importance of black artists depicting African-Americans and black life in their paintings
independently of the New Negro Movement and the Harlem Renaissance artists. About
this time, Motley complained about the lack of vision among contemporary black painters
and the need for them to portray their own lives and people:

14

THE LIFE OF ARCHIBALD j. MOTLEY, JR.

ect There exists entirely too much imitation and not enough originality . . .

len Our artists are entirely too much interested and influenced by the modern

am school of French painting. In practically all exhibitions of our group, I have

ter “seen” Renoir, Matisse, Corot, and many other Frenchmen imitated and

poorly copied. Occasionally, I noticed here and there a futile attempt at the
portrayal or depiction of our vibrant and rapidly progressing Negro Race.

And this field is such a broad one, such an extremely interesting and
important part of our American civilization. What a pity so many of our
artists go in for pretty landscapes and pictures which have no bearing what¬
soever on our group. The Negro poet portrays our group in poems, the
Negro musician portrays our group in jazz, the Negro actor portrays our
group generally with a touch of hilarity, comedy dancing and song. And
now he is grasping for and is succeeding with that which is more serious in
the theatre; the drama. All of these aforementioned portrayals are serious,
original interpretations of the Negro. There is nothing borrowed, nothing
copied, just an unraveling of the Negro soul. So why should the Negro
painter, the Negro sculptor mimic that which the white man is doing,
when he has such an enormous colossal field practically all his own; por¬
traying his people, historically, dramatically, hilariously, but honestly. And
who knows the Negro Race, the Negro Soul, the Negro Heart, better
ce, than himself ? 51

to Looking back on his New Gallery exhibition some years after the event, Motley

sr- spoke with some bitterness about the little support he received from fellow black artists

of and their reluctance to embrace a position on race he had long advocated. He felt his

)rk exhibition "... was very daring. I had the guts and the ambition to carry it through. So

?ry many colored artists discouraged me . . . Now you take the average Negro, if they’d get

lily out of that way of thinking that 'Oh, I can’t send that [paintings with black subject matter]

)n. in there because the white folks they’re not going to have that....’ They told me that

>o- when I was younger, when I sent in paintings like Mending Socks. They said ‘they’re not

going to have that.’ White artists, friends of mine, disagreed with them entirely .” 52
he While in New York, Motley apparently found his kindred spirit not in fellow black

on artists but in Mexican artist Miguel Covarrubias, who had a one-person show at the

6 ), Valentine Gallery at 43 East Fifty-seventh Street. Covarrubias came to see Motley’s exhi-

ips bition, the two artists had lunch together, and then went to see Covarrubias’s exhibition,

to Covarrubias, who had visited Africa, dealt with Caribbean, African, and Harlem themes

>e. in his works on exhibit. Works from his 1927 publication Negro Drawings show singers,

>er shake dancers, bands, and cabarets, all subjects that would occupy Motley. Covarrubias’s

he style borders on caricature; it is lively, brazen, and rambunctious like some of the seven-

igs teenth-century Flemish and Dutch artists Motley admired. There was obviously a meet-

>ut ing of the minds and artistic styles between Covarrubias and Motley, who brought his

irs own special brand of vibrancy and gusto to his paintings about music and life in

Bronzeville. 15

THE ART OF ARCHIBALD j. MOTLEY, JR.

Fig. 14. Syncopation, (1924, checklist no. 4).
From Revue du Vrai and du Beau, July 10, 1 925.

16

Although Motley disassociated himself from the Harlem Renaissance artists, he found
a strong supporter in W. E. B. DuBois, a major figure in the New Negro movement,
who closely followed the artist’s career. DuBois, editor of The Crisis, the magazine of the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, encouraged black achieve¬
ment, culture, and self-awareness during the 1920s and was among those to whom
Motley sent copies of articles on his work by Comte Chabrier that appeared in the
French publication, Revue du Vrai et du Beau. 53 DuBois publicized Motley’s work in sever¬
al issues of The Crisis, 54 and listed Motley as a credit to the race in the credit and debit
section of his column, “Opinion of W. E. B. DuBois,” which appeared in the January
1926 issue. Later in 1952, when DuBois was indicted as a “foreign agent” and branded a
communist, he wrote Motley from New York asking him to find some means of express¬
ing his support for the repeal of the Smith Act. DuBois addressed his form letter “To
Leaders of the American Negro People.” It is not known in what way Motley responded.

Motley had already turned to the depiction of life in Bronzeville in three paintings
that date to the early to mid-1920s. In Stomp (1927, checklist no. 8), Syncopation (1924,
checklist no. 4; fig. 14), and Black and Tan Cabaret (c. 1921, checklist no. 3), Motley cap¬
tures the unmistakable energy and rhythm of the Jazz Age. The clubs Motley featured in
these paintings, unlike Harlem’s Cotton Club, were black-and-tan clubs operated specifi¬
cally for a mixed audience of African-Americans and whites; these establishments were
the spawning ground for great bands, such as the Duke Ellington Band, the Fletcher
Henderson Band, and King Joe Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band. 55 The interior of the club
depicted in Stomp recalls the nightclub setting of boxer Jack Johnson’s Chicago club, the
Cafe du Champion, which opened in 1912 at 42 West Thirty-first Street; the Chicago
Hot Five, Louis Armstrong’s band, may have been the model for the four-piece band and
singer-shake dancer depicted. Stomp also includes among its many characters the first
appearance of the short, fat, bald-headed figure (who or what this enigmatic figure repre¬
sents is not clear), who is found in many of Motley’s paintings.

During the summer following his one-person exhibition in New York, Motley trav¬
eled to Pine Bluff, Arkansas, to visit relatives and to paint. As an adult, Archibald Motley
continued to travel south; his decision to go to Pine Bluff in the summer of 1928 was
motivated in part by his desire to see his elderly uncle, Robert White, and to paint his
portrait. Going south also gave him the opportunity to paint subjects unavailable to him in
an urban setting. Traveling with two unidentified Chicago artists, Motley must have found
this painting trip welcome rest after his hectic winter and spring. 56

Motley painted several landscapes that summer: Barn and Silo (1928, cat. no. 15),
Boat and Houses by the River (1928, cat. no. 16), Landscape (1928, cat. no. 17), and
Landscape—Arkansas (1928, cat. no. 18). Although painting in nature allowed Motley to
pursue his ever present curiosity about natural light, these landscapes reveal a deeper
chord in the artist. They also presented him with another opportunity to explore his
southern origins. Working in earth tones, he depicted a rural setting that recalled home
to many transplanted blacks in Chicago.

Motley executed two portraits while he was in Arkansas. Both Uncle Bob (1928, cat.

no. 20) and The Snuff Dipper (1928, cat. no. 19) depict people of the soil. Motley’s uncle,
who must have been about ninety years old when the portrait was painted, is shown on
the front porch of his Pine Bluff home. Once again, Motley paints a member of his family
with great sensitivity to his age. Uncle Bob was a hardworking man, and Motley captured
this in his depiction of the hands of a man who has worked the land—large, hard,
farmer's hands.

The Snuff Dipper records a local custom of dipping tobacco using a twig from a spe¬
cial tree. A snuff dipper would chew on one end of the twig until it softened, then shape
the end into a scoop or spoon. Motley depicts the figure in similar fashion to earlier por¬
traits. She could easily pass for one of his city dwellers; the twig in her mouth is the only
element that distinguishes her as a rural person.

In Tongues ( 1929, cat. no. 25) Motley captures the moment when the members of a
sanctified or Pentecostal church are touched by the Holy Spirit; they move, they shout,
and they dance, seemingly out of control. As a practicing Catholic, Motley may not have
personally experienced this style of worship, but most likely he visited such a church dur¬
ing his stay in Arkansas. Similar swaying figures like the minister and the woman in the
white dress appear in later works, such as Saturday Night (1935, cat. no. 35). Motley’s
use of artificial light, which casts dark, dramatic shadows, and the symbolic reference to
the Holy Trinity in his depiction of three lights and three windows, unifies the composi¬
tion and conveys the spiritual excitement of the moment.

When Motley returned to Chicago after his trip to Arkansas he brought his cousin
Fannie to live in Chicago with his family. He also had come down with a case of malaria,
and his family nursed him back to health in preparation for his trip to France.

Paris

On July 18, 1929, Archibald Motley, with his wife Edith, sailed out of New York Harbor
on the steamer Rochambeau bound for France to begin a year of study as a Guggenheim
fellow. In the study plan he submitted with his fellowship application, Motley cited further
development of technique as his primary goal, explaining that he would "specialize in the
study of masterpieces in the Louvre, as to color composition, drawing and technique,
laying most stress on a serious study of the relationship of cold and warm light.” 57 But
Motley may also have been drawn abroad to discover something more about his own
French roots and to learn firsthand about race relations in another country. Indeed,
Motley made clear his intentions not to immerse himself completely in European culture,
but to continue to confront the same issues that had been of critical importance to him in
his art thus far. "I would visit the Louvre every morning,” he wrote,

and do creative painting afternoons, or vice versa. I would paint composi¬
tions and genre-pictures, paintings depicting the the various phases of
Negro life. I would like to paint about twenty or thirty pictures . . . where
the play of cool and warm light would be an important factor. To me it
seems that pictures portraying the suffering, sorrow, and at times the child¬
like abandon of the Negro; the dance, the song, the hilarious moments

THE ART OF ARCHIBALD j. MOTLEY, JR.

when a bit of Jazz predominates, would do much to bring about better
relations, a better understanding between the races, white and colored. 58

For more than two months the Motleys lived at the Istria Hotel at 29 Rue
Campagne Premiere, a very popular hotel for artists (Josephine Baker stayed in the same
hotel in 1925 when she was part of Le Revue Negre). Motley and sculptor Benjamin
Greenstein (1901-?) 59 , who became friends in Paris, acquired studios at 16 Rue Simon
Dereure, not far from the Sacre-Coeur in Montmartre, where many artists worked.
Motley’s space—a bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, and a fifteen-by-nineteen-foot studio—
was on the second floor (Altelier 48), and Greenstein was directly below on the first
floor.

Fig. 15. Passport photograph of Edith and
Archibald J. Motley, Jr., 1929. Collection of
Archie Motley and Valerie Gerrard Browne.

Motley completed fifteen paintings while in Paris: six portraits, five paintings about
black life, one canvas devoted to black life in Paris, and three genre paintings about
Parisian life. 60 Several of the paintings show Motley’s interest in recording the range of
cultures represented by black people. Martinique Dancer (c. 1929-30, checklist no. 30)
and Martinique Youth (c. 1929-30, checklist no. 31) represent
• the Creole heritage that was a part of Motley’s life as well as
that for vast numbers of people in the West Indies. Although he
had alluded to these roots in earlier paintings, in Paris he found
plentiful examples of this fusion of French and African cultures. In
Senegalese 6 ' (c. 1929-30, checklist no. 33) Motley depicts a
young African man dressed in European clothes. The composi¬
tion, which the artist considered one of his most successful, uses
the stark whiteness of the shirt to highlight the rich, dark skin
tones of the model.

Although Motley had tried in some of his paintings to inspire
African-Americans to appreciate their African heritage, in Paris,
ironically, Motley found Africans embracing American culture
through its jazz and blues. Blues (1929, cat. no. 21), Motley’s
masterpiece about the fusion of Africa and America in Paris,
depicts the Petite Cafe, a popular jazz club whose patrons
included Senegalese, Libyans, Martiniquais, and other French-
speaking African and West Indian people. 62 In style and subject
matter it is a continuation of his exploration of music and black life. But In Blues, jazz is
celebrated not only as one of the most popular black cultural innovations, but also as one
of the few bridges across cultural boundaries that united people of different nationalities
and races in a common bond.

Motley painted three paintings of family members during his Paris stay. Portrait of My
Mother (c. 1930, checklist no. 36) was completed while Motley’s mother visited the
artist and his wife in France, 63 and Edith Motley was the subject for both Nude (1930, cat.
no. 26) and Portrait of Mrs. A. J. Motley, Jr. (1930 cat. no. 27). In the latter, the artist’s wife
is elegantly dressed in garments and jewelry purchased in Paris and appears somewhat
hardened. 64 The fox fur practically engulfs her and echoes her own dark eyes and red

THE LIFE OF ARCHIBALD j. MOTLEY, JR.

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hair, while the dark background exaggerates the whiteness of her skin. Literally stripped
of all of theses accoutrements in Nude, Edith seems vulnerable by contrast. At the same
time he was painting portraits, Motley was also working on other compositions, including
The Flight (c. 1929, checklist no. 29), Sharks (c. 1929-30, checklist no. 34), Refugees (c.
1929-30, checklist no. 32), and Spirituals (c. 1929-30, checklist no. 35).

The paintings Dans la Rue , Paris (1929, cat. no. 23), Cafe, Paris 65 (1929, cat. no. 22),
and Jockey Club (1929, cat. no. 24) chronicle life in Paris in much the same way that
countless other artists’ street and cafe scenes have captured the charm of the city. Motley
clearly reveled in the recording of daily urban life in the French capital, and in the streets,
cafes, and clubs he found something reminiscent of Chicago. Although his palette is very
light in Dans La Rue, Paris compared to previous works, this painting is a prototype for
Motley’s 1930s and 1940s Bronzeville street scenes in which he combined buildings and
vignettes from many different streets to achieve an exciting composition. Jockey Club, a
night scene where Motley once again explores the mix of natural and artificial light
(including headlights) on the street, is also a statement about French racism and the poli¬
tics of exclusion. The black doorman, although at the center of the composition, remains
outside of the activity of the scene.

The Guggenheim Foundation offered Motley a six-month extension of his fellowship
if he would make reports and send photographs of his progress. Although he had
enjoyed his stay in Paris, he declined the offer, saying that he missed Chicago and wanted
to go home. 66

Bronzeville

The period following Motley’s stay in Paris was clearly a pivotal point in his career. After
returning to America, Motley painted in a fresh and vibrant manner, committing himself
to the portrayal of the black experience in genre scenes of Chicago’s Black Belt. He also
struck out in new directions, notably mural painting under the auspices of the Works
Progress Administration (WPA). Motley conceived and executed several works in a series
on black history in the 1930s and 1940s, and he showed his work in a number of nation¬
al and international exhibitions.

Motley’s last portraits from this period are particularly important: Portrait of a
Woman on a Wicker Settee (1931, cat. no. 29), Brown Girl After the Bath (1931, cat. no.

28), and Self-Portrait (1933, cat. no. 3 I). Portrait of a Woman on a Wicker Settee (possibly
the artist’s mother) includes in the left corner a reproduction of Baldassare Castiglione by
Raphael, which Motley must have seen at the Louvre. In this portrait, Motley’s depiction
of space is more successful than in previous works. As a result, the setting, though still
academic in execution, is more dynamic, and the figure seems more at home in her
environment. Symbolism becomes less important than composition and the attempt to
depict an accurate portrait in a believable space.

Motley develops this combination of portraiture and composition even further in
Brown Girl After the Bath. Painted in dark, sensuous tones, Brown Girl After the Bath is an

arresting work. The figure, looking at her reflection after having just completed her bath, I

9

THE ART OF ARCHIBALD j. MOTLEY, JR.

Fig. 16. Archibald J. Motley, Jr. with one of his
paintings, possibly Portrait of My Mother,
c. / 930. From the Chicago Defender,
September 21, 1933.

stares back at the viewer in the mirror. This double portrait is a complex composition,
but Motley handles it superbly, creating an engaging illusion of space that focuses our
attention on the girl, who appears relaxed and natural, poised in a moment of reflection.

In his 1933 Self-Portrait, Motley holds the same palette that appears in his earlier
Self-Portrait, but the artist and his environment are quite different. 67 In this more relaxed
and revealing portrait, Motley has given up his formal suit for a more practical smock and
beret (a reference to his recent Paris visit) and appears as a striking figure who exudes
confidence. Clearly at ease with the tools of his trade, Motley places himself in his sunlit
studio at work on a painting of a nude instead of the dark opaque background of his first
self-portrait. Like Woman on a Wicker Settee and Brown Girl After the Bath, this self-por¬
trait is a more sophisticated painting in its combination of revealing portrait within a three-
dimensional space.

At about the same time, Motley began his long series of paintings depicting Black
Belt leisure and street life. Black Belt (1934, cat. no. 32) is typical of Motley’s paintings of
Bronzeville, the South Side community where more than 90 percent of Chicago’s
African-Americans lived in the 1930s. 68 Motley composed this work so that in the fore¬
ground flat silhouetted figures, almost abstract shapes, are presented in a friezelike man¬
ner across the picture plane. In the middle ground, figures with their backs turned move
away from the viewer toward the background. The artist ingeniously overlaps areas of
color to link the different planes of the painting, moving the viewer through the scene. 69
As in Jockey Club, another outdoor night scene, the artist is exploring the play of artificial
and natural light in the city street.

The Plotters (1933, cat. no. 30), The Boys in the Back Room (c. 1934, cat. no. 34),
and The Liar (1936, cat. no. 38) all provide glimpses inside Bronzeville’s bars and pool
halls. In The Liar, the viewer is brought into a back room where events are unfolding dra¬
matically among several men clustered around a table. The man in spats first appears in
The Plotters, his elbow on the table as he listens intently to the details of a plan outlined
on a piece of paper before him. The painting of boxers on the wall records the special
role that boxing matches, especially interracial contests, had in the Black Belt as important
social and political events. A poker game is in progress in The Boys in the Back Room.
These hangouts and the characters who frequented them were one aspect of black male
life that had intrigued Motley ever since he visited South Side pool halls as a child.

Carnival (1937, cat. no. 43), most likely a portrayal of the black traveling carnivals
that moved around the country in the early part of this century, once again reveals
Motley’s interest in night scenes and his ability to effectively mix natural and artificial light
effects. In an innovative use of color, Motley creates a “day-glow” effect by contrasting
complementary colors, such as the silhouetted woman in blue at the right who is out¬
lined in a strong orange. 70 Saturday Night (1935, cat. no. 36), like Stomp, Syncopation, and
Black and Tan Cabaret, evokes the dizzy energy of Bronzeville night life. But here Motley
relies more on the orchestrated movement of his figures, rather than color, to create the
mood and to recreate the pulsating rhythms.

The artist’s rewarding association with the Works Progress Administration’s Illinois

20

THE LIFE OF ARCHIBALD j. MOTLEY, JR.

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Art Project (IAP) began in 1935, the year it was founded. Motley completed a number of
mural projects and easel paintings, including The Liar, Marijuana Joint (c. 1935-36, check¬
list no. 47), Surprise in Store (c. 1934, checklist no. 43), Progressive America (c. 1935, cat.
no. 37), The Picnic (1936, cat. no. 38), The Jazz Singers (c. 1937, cat. no. 44), and In A
Garden (c. 1938, checklist no. 36). He also painted a mural for the Treasury Relief Art
Project (TRAP) as well as a number of easel paintings. Motley’s paintings were placed in
buildings in Chicago, including the Hall Branch Library, Humboldt Park Field House, The
Municipal Tuberculosis Sanitarium, and the Juvenile Court.

Motley endeavored to choose appropriate iconography based on the site where the
work would be placed. A soothing outdoor scene, In A Garden, for example, was creat¬
ed specifically for the State Sanitarium in Evansville, Indiana. 71 Motley’s murals were more
than enlarged easel paintings; their creation was carefully detailed and designed.
Extensive measurements, site visits, and innumerable preliminary drawings were made
prior to beginning a project. Concerned with the integration of mural and architecture,
Motley would note in some instances the color of the exterior bricks and the interior wall
coloring. Motley may have developed his understanding of mural techniques from his Art
Institute teacher John Norton, but he appears to have been the only black WPA artist in
Chicago interested in murals. 72

Motley received a number of mural commissions during this period. Negro Children
(c. 1939, checklist no. 52), Band Playing (c. 1936, checklist no. 50), and Dance Scene
(c. 1936, checklist no. 51) were painted on the walls of the music room of the Nicholas
Elementary School in Evanston, llinois, and Recreation (c. 1940, checklist no. 60), for
which Playground (c. 1940, cat. no. 49) may be a study, was created for the back of the
auditorium stage at the Doolittle School in Chicago. Perhaps Motley’s most important
mural project was completed outside of Illinois. In 1935, Motley received a TRAP com¬
mission to execute a mural in the entrance lobby of one of two new buildings on the
Howard University campus in Washington, D.C. Motley chose Douglass Memorial Hall
and was given until June 30, 1936, to complete the project. President Johnson of
Howard University and Art Department Chair James V Herring made Motley’s stay in
Washington easier by covering the cost of his room and board and appointing him a visit¬
ing instructor at the university. The subject of the mural for Douglass Memorial Hall (c.
1935-36, checklist no. 46) was, appropriately, the abolitionist Frederick Douglass.
Unfortunately, the mural has been painted over. The easel painting entitled Frederick
Douglass (c. 1935, checklist no. 44) was most likely a study for the Howard University
mural. 73

In 1934 Motley had apparently planned an entire mural and painting series on black
history for the WPA entitled “The Evolution of the Negro.” He eventually produced fif¬
teen works for this series, including Africa (1937, cat. no. 42), Negroes Captured in Africa
(c. 1938, checklist no. 58), Picking Cotton (c. 1933, checklist no. 38), and Negro Slaves at
Work (c. 1934, checklist no. 41), as well as an oil sketch, Arrival at Chickasaw Bayou of the
Slaves of Jefferson Davis (c. 1938, cat. no. 47). Although Motley may have created this
cycle as a continuous narrative, he probably never expected these works always to be

21

THE ART OF ARCHIBALD J. MOTLEY, JR.

exhibited together. Motley also painted or created preliminary sketches for other histori¬
cal works during the WPA period, including Progressive American (c. 1935, cat. no. 37),
LaSalle and Jonty Meet the lllini, Lincoln Riding Through Richmond, April 9, 1865 (c. 1940,
checklist no. 63), and Peter Stuyvesant, Governor of New Amsterdam.

In 1935 Motley entered a competition to execute a canvas for the Wood River,
Illinois, post office. His lengthy proposal described in detail how the work would be a his¬
torical narrative depicting the early American transportation of passengers, baggage, and
mail by stagecoach. In his proposal, Motley tried to capture the commitment of these
postal employees to getting the mail safely over long dangerous roads in horrendous
weather with the threat of violence:

We can hear the creaking of the old coach as the straining horses struggle
to get its great weight to the summit of the unmerciful height and the Inn
there. On the tree which the coach is passing a poster is visible advertising
a reward for the capture, dead or alive, of a particularly notorious and suc¬
cessful stage coach bandit. 74

On July 15, 1935, Motley received official word that his proposal had been accept¬
ed: he would be paid $240 for the six-by-four-foot stretched canvas. For the final work
United States Mail (1936, cat. nos. 40, 41) Motley decided to show the travelers just
prior to their arrival at the inn, when the desire to get there safely is the most intense.
His cropping of the coach, horses, the tree, and the guide increases the tension and
focuses the energy in the central area of the mural.

While Barbecue (c. 1935, cat. no. 39) and Saturday Night (1935) relate to the
iconography of Motley’s Chicago paintings, they were probably inspired by scenes in
Washington, D.C., when Motley was an instructor at Howard University. 75 Barbecue, an
outdoor scene illuminated by artificial light and stars, is a fairly calm tableau compared to
other works. 76 The waiters in the background move the viewer across the canvas, but
the diners in the foreground are immobile. Saturday Night is a more lively and engaging
rendering of a similar scene. Again Motley uses waiters in the background to move the
eye across the painting, but the figures in the foreground are equally animated. The
painting virtually rocks with the movement of the dancer, the beat of the band, and the
swaying of the diners.

During the 1930s Motley participated in many important exhibitions, including trav¬
eling exhibitions of black art sponsored by the Harmon Foundation that were seen
throughout the United States. The artist’s work was also included in “Udstilling af
Amerikansk Kunst,” an important retrospective of three centuries of American art, which
was shown in Sweden and Denmark. In 1933 the Chicago Woman’s Club sponsored a
one-person exhibition of Motley’s work in their Tudor Gallery, and the artist participated
in both of two exhibitions held at The Art Institute of Chicago in conjunction with the A
Century of Progress International Exposition in 1933 and 1934.

Despite his success, Motley was denied participation in some exhibitions because he
was black. Although his work had been regularly exhibited at the Art Institute’s annual
juried art shows, appearing at least eleven times between 1921 and 1935, after Daniel

22

THE LIFE OF ARCHIBALD j. MOTLEY, JR.

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Catton Rich became director of the Art Institute in 1938, Motley’s work was accepted
for exhibition only once, in 1949. Rich had even attempted to prevent Motley from
receiving the Wood River Post Office commission because the artist was black. 77

Motley continued his association with the WPA in the 1940s. In Lawd, Mah Man's
Leavin’ (1940, cat. no. 48) Motley returns to rural America to depict the tearful farewell
of a black woman to her husband, who is perhaps heading north in search of a job. Filled
with tension and stylized emotion in contrast to the charm and serenity of his Arkansas
series of 1928-29, this painting captures a poignant moment that thousands of African-
American families had experienced. Motley completed paintings of historical scenes,
including Lincoln Riding Through Richmond, April 9, 1865, and he proposed works such as
Lakeside General Station (c. 1940, checklist no. 62) and Subway Constructions (c. 1940,
checklist no. 64) but whether these projects were murals or even executed is not clear. 78
Motley was also associated with another WPA project, the founding of the federally fund¬
ed South Side Community Art Center at 383 I South Michigan Avenue—and he exhibit¬
ed in its inaugural show, Paintings by Negro Artists of the Illinois Art Project. The opening of
the center took on great significance for the Illinois Art Project, especially in light of the
closing of the Harlem Art Center in New York City. In a letter to Florence Kerr, Assistant
Commissioner of the WPA, Peter Pollack, director of the South Side Community Art
Center, wrote that “now that the Harlem Art Center has closed its doors, this Center
stands as the only progressive organization for free education in the arts and crafts.” 79
During its first two months of operation some 6,500 people visited the institution for
classes, to view exhibitions, and to hear lectures.

Motley painted several genre scenes during this period, including The Argument (c.

1940, checklist no. 59), Sunday in the Park (1941, cat. no. 50), Night Life (1943, cat. no.
50), Extra Paper (1946, cat. no. 53), and the charming Playground (c. 1940). Three paint¬
ings from the 1940s, Casey and Mae in the Street (1948, cat. no. 54), Cettin' Religion
(1948, cat. no. 55), and Christmas Eve (c. 1945, cat. no. 52) are strikingly similar street
scenes. All three feature Motley’s favorite color, a deep, rich cobalt blue that the artist
began to favor during this period and used throughout the 1960s, and each is a night
scene lit by artificial and natural illumination. Motley also places his Englewood home in
each street scene (it appears slanted in Casey and Mae). The scenes pulsate with the
electricity of city life and are choreographed with such vitality that one expects the paint¬
ings to burst forth with city sounds. Cettin’ Re//g/on is a particularly successful composition
with its strong diagonals unifying the vertical and horizontal elements. Although Casey
and his chicken, Mae West, are ostensibly the main focus of the painting, the composition
first leads the viewer’s eye to Motley’s enigmatic bald-headed fat man standing next to a
street light. Only then does the viewer pick the eccentric Casey Jones out of the crowd.
Eldzier Cortor, an artist who trained at the South Side Community Art Center, remem¬
bers that the street hustler had few teeth, talked like the comedienne Jackie “Moms”
Mabley, sold hot tamales for five cents, and mesmerized his chickens to perform with
him as he sang and danced. 80 Christmas Eve, the brightest of the three scenes because of
the light reflecting off the snow, is also the most subdued. A Santa Claus stands in the

I

23

THE ART OF ARCHIBALD j. MOTLEY, JR.

Fig. 17. Cosey Jones and his trained chicken,
Mae West, Chicago, 1973. Collection of Judge
Norma Y. Dotson. Photograph by Ted Gray.

24

middle of the painting ringing his bell, but the figures moving in the foreground disregard
him as they make their way along the street, perhaps on last minute shopping errands.

Mexico

The 1950s were a period of dramatic change for Motley. Motley, his wife, and young son
moved to 3518 South Wentworth Avenue in 1942 and in 1947 they moved back to 350
West Sixtieth Street. When Edith died on December 17, 1948, the artist had to discon¬
tinue his painting in order to support his mother and son. Motley found a job with
Styletone, Inc., manufacturer of hand-painted shower curtains and worked there for
eight years. He was laid off in 1957 but found work with Artistic, Inc., painting shower
curtains for about a year. In 1957, at the age of sixty-six, the artist applied for his social
security benefits. 81

Almost all of Motley’s oeuvre from the 1950s is devoted to Mexican themes. 82 His
two Mexican notebooks suggest that the artist was in Mexico from 1953 to 1954 and
perhaps in 1957 after he left Styletone. Letters and notes among his personal papers sug¬
gest even earlier dates for his visits with his nephew, Willard, an acclaimed novelist, in
Cuernavaca—from December 25, 1952 to June 1953. While in Mexico, Motley contin¬
ued to paint portraits, landscapes, and genre scenes, including cabarets, street scenes,
and funerals (some are so large they could pass for murals), and his palette lightened
considerably in response to the Mexican light, climate, and environment. Gone at least
for the moment are the rich blues of Genin' Religion.

Motley appears to have resided in two areas while in Mexico with Willard:
Guanajuato state, northwest of Mexico City and Cuernevaca, just south of Mexico City.
Motley most likely visited Diego Rivera’s murals in the Palace of Cortes in Cuernavaca
while he was there. Petate wall decorations by native artisans introduced him to working
in oil on petate mats, which were made from woven palm leaf strips. 83

Cabaret at Puebla (1953, checklist no. 68), a painting on petate, is an energetic
depiction of the interior of a club where many Mexican people are gathered. Like his
earlier club paintings of Bronzeville, this scene pulsates with the feeling of Mexican music
and its staccato rhythms. Even in the preliminary drawing for this work, Motley has cap¬
tured the rhythms of Mexico.

The long horizontal format of the petate mat works well for the funeral procession
Another Mexican Baby (c. 1953-54, cat. no. 59), a commentary on the high incidence of
infant death in Mexico. Family and friends on their way to the cemetery are presented in
a frieze-like arrangement in the shallow space in front of what may be the cemetery wall.
Although strong vertical figures sharply contrast with the horizontal format of the mat,
stalks of gladeola flowers and other objects held diagonally help to move the viewer
across the painting.

Seri Indian Woman (1953, checklist no. 70) and Jose with a Serape (1953, cat. no. 58)
are two portraits from Motley’s 1953 visit to Mexico. The Seri Indian woman, who came
from the Tiburon Islands on Mexico’s west coast, is painted with a Mexican landscape as
a background. The landscape with portrait, a new device for Motley, is a logical progres-

THE LIFE OF ARCHIBALD J. MOTLEY, JR.

sion in his integration of portraits into more illusionary space.

But here the portrait and landscape are not well integrated. The
painting, flat like a petate mat, has a folk or naive quality. Jose,
who worked for Willard Motley, is rendered in a flat style against
a pale yellow background, and the painting is virtually devoid of
light and shadow.

Motley’s paintings from his second trip to Mexico in
1957-58 are largely genre scenes. Guanajuato, Mexico (cat. no.

61), Calle del Padre (cat. no. 62), Callejon de Beso (cat. no. 63)
and Market Scene, Mexico (cat. no. 64), are all from 1957; San
Miguel de Allende (cat. no. 65) and Near San Miguel de Allende,

Mexico (cat. no. 66) are dated 1958. Motley captures the tropi¬
cal climate and culture in his soft pastel colors. Unlike earlier
works where figures with strong, even exaggerated features, are
the dynamic force in his paintings, the figures here are faceless.

The men wear sombreros pulled down over their faces, and
the women have no features at all. Motley seems more inter¬
ested in the setting than the people, who appear perhaps only for scale.

Late Works

During the 1960s and 1970s, Motley executed only a few paintings, experimenting with
new styles and subjects but also returning to his familiar images of black Chicago. In After
Revelry, Meditation (c. 1960, checklist no. 72), Motley creates an almost surreal image of
a Mexican outdoor cabaret after the patrons and the musicians have gone home. Motley
conveys a sense of sorrow here in sharp contrast to the usual festive and energetic flavor
of his nightlife scenes. The revelry returns in Barbecue (I960, cat. no. 67) and in Hot
Rhythm (1961, cat. no. 68), both scenes that take us back to Bronzeville. In Hot Rhythm
Motley boldly shifts the band and dancers to the foreground to create a more frenzied
mood. Unlike the musicians and dancer in Saturday Night, where the musicians had a
subordinate role, these performers need no audience; they are caught up in the ecstacy
of the moment and the trumpet player beckons the viewer to join in. Barbecue is one of
Motley’s most challenging explorations of natural and artificial light, and he creates a mas¬
terful and subtle mix of starlight with the soft glow from Chinese lanterns to cast blue,
red, and green light over the scene in a rich interplay of color.

Motley’s painting, The First One Hundred Years: He Amongst You Who Is Without Sin
Shall Cast the First Stone; Forgive Them Father For They Know Not What They Do
(1963-72, cat. no. 69), is his most overtly political work and seemingly his most puzzling.
Nearly a decade in the making, the work is painted in the style of a religious apocalyptic
vision; however, it draws attention not to the future, which is typical of such views, but to
the past century. Combining religious imagery with historical figures and symbols from
African-American life and culture, Motley assaults the viewer with a horrific record of past
injustices against blacks. Although the painting is rich with many layers of meaning, the

Fig. 18. Archibald J. Motley, Jr., and artist
Josephine Franklin study shower curtain designs
at work for Styletone, Inc., a manufacturer of
hand-painted shower curtains, 1953. From
Ebony, February 1953. Photograph by
David Jackson.

Fig. 19. Mexico, c. 1953-57. Collection of
Archie Motley and Valerie Gerrard Browne.

25

THE ART OF ARCHIBALD J. MOTLEY, JR.

26

Fig. 20. Archibald J. Motley, Jr., with his last painting, The First One Hundred Years: He Amongst You Who is
Without Sin Shall Cast the First Stone: Forgive Them Father For They Know Not What They Do, 1963-72.
Collection of Archie Motley and Valerie Gerrard Browne.

THE LIFE OF ARCHIBALD j. MOTLEY, JR.

powerful juxtaposition of the lynched black man and the Statue of Liberty is the central,
riveting image in the painting. 84 But the painting appears to represent a catharsis for the
artist rather than a mournful cry of despair. Although Motley makes no clear reference to
progress here, the words “1961 The First One Hundred Years” painted at the top of the
canvas imply the beginning of a new century of struggle for freedom and equality, not the
end of the fight in defeat. Painted not as a warning of some terrible future but as a
reminder of a past that must be overcome, the painting ultimately speaks of hope for a
better time.

For some African-Americans, the responsibility of representing their race artistically
has been a terrible burden. Writing in the first decade of this century, W. E. B. DuBois
alluded to this problem in his discussion of his own two warring souls: “an American, a
Negro: two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings, two warring ideals in one
dark body whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.” 85 More
recently, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., identified the issue in a wider historical context:

For a people who seem to care so much about their public image, you
would think blacks would spend more energy creating the conditions for
the sort of theatre and art they want rather than worrying about how they
are perceived by the larger society. Many black people still . . . feel that
their precarious political and social condition within American society war¬
rants a guarded attitude toward the way images of their culture are pro¬
jected . . . Given the burdensome role of black art, it was inevitable that
debates about the nature of that art—about what today we call its “political
correctness”—would be heated in black artistic circles. These debates
have proved to be rancorous, from the 20’s renaissance through the bat¬
tles between realism and symbolism in the 30’s to the militant black arts
movement in the 60’s. . . The burden of representing “the race” in accor¬
dance with explicitly political programs can have a devastating impact on
black creativity. 86

Although Motley shared Gates’s concern with “creating the conditions for the sort of
theatre and art” African-Americans wanted, he appears not to have been burdened by
this responsibility. Indeed, his artistic output during his career is testimony to the energy
and singlemindedness with which he pursued his personal goal of painting black culture
and life. “In my paintings I have tried to paint the Negro as I have seen him and as I feel
him, in myself without adding or detracting, just being frankly honest.’’ 87 Unencumbered
by political agendas, Motley concentrated on what he loved and knew best—painting.
Although he depicted a broader selection of black life than any of his contemporaries,
anyone looking for a historical record or a social document of his times will be disap¬
pointed. But as an artist Motley captured what facts alone cannot—the rhythms, the
sounds, the blur of activity, indeed the essence of life itself. An innovative artist who used
light and color to create compelling portraits and imaginative composition, Motley’s
paintings present a remarkable vision of black Chicagoans and their lives.

Fig. 21. Motley with Jose, Willard Motley’s gard-
ner, Mexico, c. 1953-57. Collection of Archie
Motley and Valerie Gerrard Browne.

27

THE ART OF ARCHIBALD j. MOTLEY, JR.

NOTES

1. Interview with Archibald J. Motley, Jr., by Dennis
Barrie, January 23, 1978, Archives of American Art,
Smithsonian Institution, Washington. D. C.; copy of
transcript in Archibald J. Motley, Jr., Papers, Archives
and Manuscripts Collection, Chicago Historical Society,

?. Louisiana, one of the last states to bring slaves directly
from Africa, was America’s largest importer of African
slaves, “lb work the fields of cotton and sugarcane intro¬
duced from the West Indies, the Louisiana French
imported Africans from the Bantu Cultures of the
Lower Congo. By 1600 Creoles—French-speaking
people of both French and African heritage—and their
slaves numbered about forty thousand people. Their
homes were concentrated along the banks of the lower
Mississippi River, where Mary F Huff and Archibald John
Motley, Sr., were born. Harriet Huff, maternal grand¬
mother of Archibald J. Motley, Jr., was probably a
descendant of the Dorobo (Ndorobo) or one of the
related ethnic groups from the Rift Valley Province
between Lakes Victoria, Albert, and Nyansa and the
Indian Ocean on Africa’s east coast. The Dorobo, who
live in Kenya and northern Tanzania, are small in stature
and are possibly related to the pygmies. Harriet Huff
married Henri Breause a French Caucasian. Emily
Motley, the artist’s paternal grandmother, a mulatress,
was from Louisiana and later Arkansas. The artist’s
mother, Mary F Motley, was born in Plaquemine,
Louisiana, on April 3, 1870 and married Archibald John
Motley, Sr., of Napoleonville, Louisiana, on January 14,
1891.

2. ‘Autobiography” by Archibald J. Motley, Jr., n.d.,
Archibald J. Motley, Jr., Papers, Archives and
Manuscripts Collection, Chicago Historical Society,
notes?. Motley was about six years old when his family
moved to a two-story flat at 5544 South Morgan Street
in Chicago. The Motleys lived at two more Englewood
addresses before purchasing a home at 350 West
Sixtieth Street in 1907, where Archibald J. Motley, Jr.,
resided for many decades. For an overview of the
development of the Englewood neighborhood see
Gerald E. Sullivan, ed., The Story of Englewood

1835-1923, (Chicago: Foster & McDonnell, 1924).

3. Motley, ‘Autobiography,’’ 3-4. When Motley was
about twelve or thirteen years old he was accosted by
two brothers, eighteen-year-old Max Herder and his
sixteen-year-old brother Eric. They picked up Motley
and threw him in a large wooden breadbox outside of
Kliengenschmit's Grocery store at the corner of West
Sixty-sixth and Morgan streets. The brothers sat on the
box for fifteen to twenty minutes while Motley kicked
and screamed in vain for help. Finally, the brothers let
him out, “gave [Motley] a kick in the pants and said, ‘Go
home Nigger.’” Motley, ‘Autobiography,” 3. See Elaine
Woodall, ‘Archibald J. Motley, Jr.: American Artist of the
Afro-American People, 1891 -1928" (Master's thesis,
Pennsylvania State University, 1977), 9.

4. Motley, Autobiography," 1-2. Motley attended three
elementary schools in the Englewood community. He
and his sister Flossie were the only black children
enrolled in the Perkins Bass School, located at Sixty-
sixth and May streets, and they attended the Beale
School at Sixty-first and Peoria streets with seven other
black children. The Motley children graduated from the
Nicholas Copernicus School at Sixtieth and Throop
streets. Motley, Autobiography," 2.

5. Motley, Autobiography," 6.

6. Barrie, Interview, [9].

7. Barrie, Interview, [9-10].

8. Woodall, 14. Motley may have taken time off from
school to work fulltime, which would explain his late
start in high school.

9. Laura Bergquist et al., History of Englewood High
1874-1935 (Chicago: The Students of Englewood
High, 1935), 63. Motley studied mechanical drawing for
eighty weeks, earning a grade of 82; free-hand drawing
for one hundred and twenty weeks, receiving a grade
of 90; and he earned a grade of 90 for his one hun¬
dred-week crafts class. Archibald J. Motley, Jr.,
Application for the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship,
1929-30, John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, New
York City; copy in Archibald J. Motley, Jr., Papers,
Archives and Manuscripts Collection, Chicago Historical
Society.

28

THE LIFE OF ARCHIBALD j. MOTLEY, JR.

10. Englewood High School Certificate of
Recommendation. Archibald J. Motley, Jr., Papers,
Archives and Manuscripts Collection, Chicago Historical
Society.

11. Videotape interview with the Motley family by the
author, summer 1990, Archibald J. Motley, Jr., Papers,
Archives and Manuscripts Collection, Chicago Historical
Society. Motley’s sister Mae Flossie Motley Moore
remembers Edith and Archibald flirting with each other
from their respective basements across the street.
Motley family interview. New evidence suggests the
houses were located at opposite ends of the street.
Census information provided by Ralph Pugh, Chicago
Historical Society.

12. Motley remained attached to Englewood High
School during his Art Institute years. He stayed in con¬
tact with principal James Elder Armstrong, teacher
Josephine Allini, and especially his art teacher, Elizabeth
D. Troeger, to whom he sent exhibition invitations and
publications highlighting his achievements throughout
his career. "Long Notebook," Archibald J. Motley, Jr.,
Archibald J. Motley, Jr., Papers, Archives and
Manuscripts Collection, Chicago Historical Society,
171-72.

13. Woodall, 15.

14. Motley, ’Autobiography,” 10.

15. Motley, Autobiography,” I I.

16. Motley, Autobiography," I I.

17. Barrie, Interview, [20]. Schwartz emigrated to
America from Smogen, Russia, when he was seventeen
years old, having completed four years of study at the
Vilna Art School in what was then Russian-occupied
Poland. An accomplished singer, Schwartz was strongly
influenced by music and created a series of abstract
paintings titled “Symphonic Forms," which tried to
express the relationship between music and painting.

18. Woodall, 29.

19. Woodall, 29-30.

20. Woodall, 29-30. Motley carried his sketchbook
with him to work and drew whenever he could.

21. Barrie, Interview, [18].

22. "How I Solve My Painting Problems," by Archibald

Motley, Jr., n.d., Harmon Foundation Papers, Library of
Congress, Washington, D. C.; copy in Archibald J.
Motley, Jr., Papers, Archives and Manuscripts Collection,
Chicago Historical Society, 5.

23. Motley, "How I Solve My Painting Problems,” 5.

24. Barrie, Interview, [19, 22]. Karl Buehr, who taught
him figure and portrait painting, asked him never to
change his style, believing that Motley had "stated on
something very interesting” and that it would do him
good to continue working in this mode. Motley took
the suggestion to heart and as a result, he remained
steadfastly academic in his portrait style throughout the
twenties.

25. Motley told his sister that painting hands was one
his most difficult tasks. Motley family interview.

26. “In Native Colors," The Survey 58 (August I,

1927), 56.

27. Woodall, 93.

28. Personal communication with Archie Motley.

29. Woodall, 93.

30. Motley wrote of the model: “[She] was the posses¬
sor of an extremely fiery temper, a very temperamental
person. I have tried to express her personality in the
physiognomy of the face and the personality and rela¬
tion of the hands to the face. I have also tried to
express the true mulattress. I think the very strong fiery
red dress adds much to the personality of the subject.
The accessories in this painting are added for the pur¬
pose of balance of spaces and color and a certain tran¬
quility which exists in the painting hanging in the back¬
ground and the vase of flowers on the table and a
slightly humorous note, of the Chinese flowers. These
objects are a balancing note and reduce to a certain
extent the fiery appearance of the figure. Motley, "How
I Solve My Painting Problems," 4.

31. Motley, “How I Solve My Painting Problems," 5.

32. Barrie, Interview [25].

33. “This painting was built first on the round or oval
shape, the stem shape, the triangular shape and finally
the square or oblong shape. It was a study in skin pig¬
mentation. A quadroon is a person having one-fourth
Negro blood and three-fourths Caucasian blood. This

painting was a portrait of a doctor’s wife who was the
possessor of a gracious personality and a very symmet¬
rical face with a true feminine loveliness. This type of
colored person falls in a category between the mulatto
and the octoroon. There is possibly more variance in
their features, color and hair than any other Negro
type. But I do think this painting depicts the true
quadroon." Motley, “How I Solve My Painting
Problems," 7.

34. Motley, "How I Solve My Painting Problems,” 5.

35. Barrie, Interview, [26]. According to Woodall,
"Motley always considered portraiture to be his special¬
ty, but he turned to compositional pieces more and
more as he realized the limited economic advantage of
rare portraiture." Woodall, 43.

36. Motley, Autobiography, 8.

37. While in New York City, Harshe also served on the
panel that awarded Motley a John Guggenheim
Foundation fellowship to study in Paris. Barrie,

Interview.

38. There were other exhibitions of black art in New
York at the same time. The Harmon Foundation, which
offered grants to black writers and artists and sponsored
annual art exhibitions, held its first exhibition in 1928 at
the Art Center in midtown Manhattan. Also, in
February, the portraitist O. Richard Reid had an exhibi¬
tion of his work at the 135th Street branch of the New
York Public Library. In May 1988, the Kenkeleba Gallery
in New York City celebrated the sixtieth anniversary,
almost to the date, of this historic one-person show at
the New Gallery with a showing of Motley works. See
Jontyle Theresa Robinson, ‘Archibald John Motley, Jr.: A
Notable Anniversary for a Pioneer,: in Three Masters:
EJdzier Cortor, Hughie Lee Smith, Archibald John Motley,
Jr. (exh. cat.) (New York: Kenkeleba Gallery, 1988).

39. George S. Heilman to Archibald J. Motley, Jr., May
9, 1927, Archibald J. Motley, Jr., Papers, Archives and
Manuscripts Collection, Chicago Historical Society.

40. Nathan Irvin Huggins, "Introduction," in Alan
Schoener (ed.), Harlem On My Mind: Cultural Capital of

29

THE ART OF ARCHIBALD j. MOTLEY, JR

black America 1900-1978 (New York: Dell Publishing,
1979), 14.

41. Rosalyn Cambridge, who has done extensive inves¬
tigations of Peter Minshall and contemporary masquer¬
ade in Trinidad and Tobago, believes there may be
some correlation between this floating figure in
Motley’s Kikuyu God of Fire and the many Mardi Gras
figures that Motley must have witnessed during his peri¬
odic returns to New Orleans (Motley kept Mardi Gras
souvenirs from these visits). Kikuyu God of Fire, there¬
fore, may represent a merging of Motley’s African
ancestry and his New Orleans roots.

42. “The Art Galleries," The New Yorker 4 (March
1928), 79.

43. Marya Mannes, "Gallery Notes," Creative Art 16
(April 10, 1928), 16.

44. Edward Alden Jewell, ’A Negro Artist Plumbs the
Negro Soul," The New York Times Magazine, March 25,
1928, sec. H, 8. Motley felt that Jewell described what
he was trying to say, and he included portions of the
essay in “How I Solve My Painting Problems."

45. John Nail paid $400 for his painting; Carl Hamilton
purchased six paintings (Waganda [Uganda] Charm
Makers, Omen, Octoroon Girl, A Mulattress, Mending
Socks, and Picnic at the Grove ) for $2,650; Mrs. T
Morris Murray of Boston purchased Head of a
Quadroon for $300; Ralph Pulitzer paid $600 for Aline,
An Octoroon; an anonymous collector bought Blaine, A
Convalescent for $400. New Gallery to Archibald J.
Motley, Jr., May 1, 1928; George S. Heilman to
Archibald J. Motley, Jr., March 12, 1928; New Gallery
to Archibald J. Motley, Jr., March 14, 1928; New
Gallery to Archibald J. Motley, Jr., March 15, 1928;
Archibald J. Motley, Jr., Papers, Archives and Manuscript
Collection, Chicago Historical Society.

46. John E. Nail to Archibald J. Motley, Jr., April 9,

1928, Archibald J. Motley, Jr., Papers, Archives and
Manuscripts Collection, Chicago Historical Society.

47. Motley, ‘Autobiography," 7-9.

48. Archibald J. Motley, Jr., “The Negro In Art,” n.d.,
Collection of Archie Motley; copy in Archibald J.

30

Motley, Jr., Papers, Archives and Manuscripts Collection,
Chicago Historical Society.

49. The day following the closing of his exhibition,
Motley received the following invitation from Edward
Cherry: “This is just a note to say that we will expect
you on Monday evening about ten o’ clock at the home
of Mrs. Bessie Bearden, 173 W. 140 Street to meet
especially Aaron Douglas, Augusta Savage, Richard
Reid, Richard Bruce and Charles Alston. These young
people are all interested in the plastic arts. Some of the
others present will be poets, story writers and leading
stage actors. Looking forward with a great deal of plea¬
sure to seeing you.” Edward Cherry to Archibald J.
Motley, Jr., March I 1, 1928, Archibald J. Motley, Jr.,
Papers, Archives and Manuscripts Collection, Chicago
Historical Society

50. Edward Morrrow quoted in Robinson, “Motley,"
42-43.

51. Motley, “The Negro In Art."

52. Barrie, Interview, [42]. Asked later in life what he
thought of the artists recognized as part of the Harlem
Renaissance and of the period in general, Motley stated:
"There was no Renaissance. I think it was quite an
advancement over the work that they had been putting
out. But the work did not reflect a Renaissance." Barrie,
Interview, [42].

53. Comte Chabrier, “Expositions de I’Art Institute de
Chicago, du No Jury Expositions et du Cincinnati
Museum," Revue du Vrai et du Beau 4 (February 10,

1925) 14-20; Comte Chabrier and G. Serac,
“Expositions d’Amerique," 4 (July 10, 1925) 26-30,
28-29.

54. In the February 1918 issue of The Crisis DuBois
mentioned what is perhaps Motley’s earliest group
exhibition. On December 21, 1917, the Art and Letters
Society of Chicago opened its first exhibition of
Chicago’s Negro artists, which, in addition to Motley,
included the work of F L. Holmes, William A. Harper,
W. M. Farrow, Jesse Stubbs, Edward Knox, R. M.
Wiliams, and Charles C. Dawson. In 1923 DuBois
reproduced Portrait of My Grandmother in The Crisis and
informed readers that Motley’s two paintings,

Grandmother and Octoroon, were on view in the
“Twenty-seventh Annual Exhibition by Artists of Chicago
and Vicinity” at The Art Institute of Chicago. A photo¬
graph of Motley appeared in the July 1925 issue of The
Crisis after the artist had won the Frank G. Logan Medal
for Syncopation and the Joseph N. Eisendrath prize for
Mu/ottress, which were exhibited in the "Twenty-ninth
Annual Exhibition by Artists of Chicago and Vicinity."

55. Jazz followed the Mississippi River from Louisiana to
Chicago and then spread to New York City. Wth the
help of King Joe Oliver and his Creole Jazz Band, musi¬
cians such as Louis Armstrong were able to spread the
jazz sounds of New Orleans to the north, where it was
embraced and transformed into a unique kind of music.
When Oliver moved to Chicago, he sent for Armstrong
to join him. After arriving in Chicago, Armstrong began
to merge his New Orleans blues and jazz sound with
northern urban jazz.

56. Motley wrote of one excursion:"... after a hike of
some distance through a thick forest of pines, lugging
painting paraphenalia we finally arrived at a clearing near
a stream of water. It was early afternoon that we set up
our easels and decided to paint the landscape . . . dili¬
gently working for approximately an hour..."

Archibald J. Motley, Jr., “Six Pairs of Stockings," 1928,
Archibald J. Motley, Jr., Papers, Archives and
Manuscripts Collection, Chicago Historical Society, I.

57. Motley, Application.

58. Motley, Application.

59. Greenstein received his education at the Ferrer
School, where he studied with Robert Henri and
George Bellows, two artists Motley admired.

60. Motley’s Paris diary describes his work schedule.

He worked with live models in the morning, preferably
on sunny days (Motley wrote constantly about the
weather in his diary), for about three hours at a time;
he worked on one painting at a time and never talked
while painting. After 1:00 p.m. he worked on composi¬
tions. Paris Diary, January-February, 1930, Collection of
Archie Motley and Valerie Gerrard Browne; copy in
Archibald J. Motley, Jr., Papers, Archives and
Manuscripts Collection, Chicago Historical Society.

THE LIFE OF ARCHIBALD J. MOTLEY, JR

61. Ms. Zaida, a Haitian woman, was the model for
Martinique Dancer. Motley used two models for
Senegalese: Mr. Diarafrom Senegal, and Mr. Maurice,
who replaced the first model when he became ill.
Archibald J. Motley, Jr., Diary, Collection of Archie
Motley and Valerie Gerrard Browne, February 17,

1929; February 25, 1929; May 19, 1930; May 28,

1930.

62. See Richard J. Powell, The Blues Aesthetic: Black
Culture and Modernism (exh. cat.) (Washington, D. C.:
Washington Project for the Art, 1989) 26-27.

63. In letters written to his niece, Motley recounted
that on the night of his mother’s arrival his wife Edith
drank too much celebrating her mother-in-law’s visit to
Paris, and he included a humorous drawing of Edith in
an inebriated condition. In another letter he included a
delightful drawing showing his mother enjoying her stay
in Paris, especially the wine. Archibald J. Motley, Jr. to
Norma Worthington LaMonte, Collection of Norma
Worthington LaMonte.

64. Edith returned to the United States on November
6, 1929 due to illness and came back to Paris on March
1, 1930. These are probably articles Motley purchased
to welcome her back to Paris after her hiatus in
America.

65. Motley made sketches for Dans La Rue, Paris and
Cafe, Paris, but also found among his papers are four
postcards from the area where Motley lived and
worked, which may have helped him remember a
sense of place or mood in Paris. Some aspects of the
settings he depicted in these two works can be seen in
the postcards. In his Paris diary, Motley mentions the
Cosmos and the Cafe Reve, two of the cafes that he
frequented.

66. Barrie, Interview, [49]. Motley’s report of his activi¬
ties as a fellow does not mention any dramatic changes
in the artist's approach, but merely lists where he trav¬
eled and which European artist inspired him most.
Motley reported that he had visited the Louvre,
Luxemburg, Cluny, Versailles, St. Germain, and many
exhibitions in Parisian galleries. Motley was especially
struck by the work of David, Ingres, Delacroix,

Courbet, and Hals. Motley did not submit any of his
work to the exhibitions in Paris, preferring instead to
wait and exhibit in the United States. Archibald J.

Motley to Henry Allen Moe, September 3, 1930,
Guggenheim Foundation, New York City; copy in
Archibald J. Motley, Jr., Papers, Archives and
Manuscripts Collection, Chicago Historical Society.

67. For this painting, however, he may be holding the
palette in his hand for dramatic effect. Family members
suggest that he almost always worked with the palette,
which is approximately two feet in length, on the table.
Motley family interview.

68. Mary Elaine Ogden, ‘A Chicago Negro
Community: A Statistical Description," Report of Official
Project 165-54-6999, Works Progress Administration,
December 1930, Chicago, Illinois, 3.

69. On a preliminary drawing of this work, the artist
noted “Painting for Myself" and "Negro Policeman." In
Black Belt the artist may be remembering Richard
Havelock, a man who had a great influence on the artist
as a young child. Motley’s father met Havelock in 1900
as a passenger on one of his return train trips from
New York to Chicago. An educated and well-traveled
man (he had been to Africa and Europe) Havelock
came to live with the Motleys and stayed with them for
three or four years. He was exceedingly kind to Motley
and his sister, helping them with their homework and
diction. But he always told Motley’s mother that some¬
day he would leave for work and never return and that
is precisely what he did. Two years later the artist and
his mother were “. . . shopping downtown and crossed
the street at Madison and State and in the center of the
street. . . directing the automobiles and people in his
immaculate white gloves . . . was Mr. Havelock."

Motley, ’Autobiography," 5.

70. Interview with Floyd Coleman by the author, March
12, 1988, Washington, D. C.

71. Motley received thirty-four dollars for the two oil
paintings (destroyed by fire in 1943) created for the
Evansville State Hospital, Evansville, Indiana.

72. In a letter from George G. Thorp, State Director of
the Federal Art Project, to Thomas C. Parker, Assistant

Director of the Federal Art Project, WPA, Thorp dis¬
cusses Motley and his ability to execute murals and rec¬
ommends the artist for a mural commission in North
Carolina: “Mr. Motley designed and executed a mural at
the Nicholas Elementary School in Evanston. The room
is completely decorated, the last two panels being done
under the supervision of the Federal Art Project. It is
unquestionably a mural of merit. Although we have a
number of very talented negro artists in the Easel divi¬
sion, none so far have been interested in doing murals."
George G. Thorp to Thomas C. Parker, February 27,

1939, Archibald J. Motley, Jr., Papers, Archives of
American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

73. “Colored Artist Painting Murals," The Evening Star
(Washington, D. C.), October 18, 1935. Motley
worked in Washington for seventy-six dollars a month
(one hundred and twenty hours maximum) and was
able to hire an assistant. Olin Downs to Archibald J.
Motley, Jr., September 4, 1935, Archibald J. Motley, Jr.,
Papers, Archives and Manuscripts Collection, Chicago
Historical Society. The mural sketch for the Douglass
Memorial Hall project, executed between 1935 and

1936, appears on a January 1943 allocation list for the
Cook County Board of Education. The sketch, now
lost, probably hung in a Chicago Public School. Motley
must have enjoyed his residency at Howard University
because he tried to secure another mural commission
there in 1936. Again, Olin Downs, chief of the Treasury
Relief Project, wrote Motley about the sketches the
artist had sent him, praising Funeral Scene as interesting
and dynamic, but advising him that the chances of him
doing other murals on the campus were slim based on
his conversations with James Herring and President
Johnson. Olin Downs to Archibald J. Motley, Jr., May
11,1936, Archibald J. Motley, Jr., Papers, Archives and
Manuscripts Collection, Chicago Historical Society.

74. Archibald J. Motley, Jr to Administrators, Fine Arts
Section, 1935, Papers of Archibald J. Motley, Jr.,

Archives and Manuscripts Collection, Chicago Historical
Society. The artist also chose to paint about stagecoach¬
es because they traveled near Wood River stopping at

31

THE ART OF ARCHIBALD j. MOTLEY, JR

the Three-Mile House at Edwardsville.

75. An examination of the original frames indicates that
they were purchased and perhaps manufactured in
Washington, D.C.

76. Motley was exploring nighttime illumination during
this period, and he often painted in the dark using only
candles for light in an attempt to understand the effects
of dark and light from natural and artificial sources.

77. Edward B. Rowan, the superintendent of the
Treasury Department’s Section of Painting and
Sculpture had to overrule the Chicago committee’s
decision to grant the award to another artist from
Chicago. Rich, who was chair of the committee, wrote
Rowan to explain to him that Motley was a “negro” and
therefore did not deserve the commission, but Rowan
felt that Motley’s design was "the best possible mural
decoration ..." Edward B. Rowan to Daniel Catton
Rich, July 2, 1935, Archibald J. Motley, Jr., Papers,
Archives and Manuscripts Collection, Chicago Historical
Society.

78. Allocation Files for Buildings in Chicago, Works
Progress Administration Federal Art Project, Chicago,
Illinois, Archives of American Art, Smithsonain
Institution, Washington, D. C.

79. Peter J. Pollack to Florence Kerr, January 19, 1941,
Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution,
Washington, D.C.

80. Interview with Eldzier Cortor by the author, April
23, 1988.

81. Archibald J. Motley Jr., ‘A General Summation,"
n.d., Archibald J. Motley, Jr., Papers, Archives and
Manuscripts Collection, Chicago Historical Society.

82. In Nude, Motley paints a figure within an abstract
composition, an extremely unusual combination for the
artist.

83. "Negro Artist Exhibits at Public Library," Chicago
Tribune, October 25, 1953. These works are now very
fragile because the artist used no primer to stabilize the
paint, which he applied directly onto the palm leaf.

84. Motley may have modeled his figure after a photo¬
graph of a lynched man on the cover of the July 1930

edition of Detective, which he acquired in Paris in
1929-30.

85. W. E. B. DuBois, Souls of black Folk: Essays
and Sketches (New York: Dodd, Mead & Company,
1961)30.

86. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., "Why the ‘Mule Bone’
Debate Goes On,” The New York Times Magazine
February 10, 1991, sec. H, 5.

87. Motley, "How I Solve My Painting Problems,” 5-6.

32

Motley’s Chicago Context, 1890-1940

Wendy Greenhouse

ubject matter plays a most important part in my art,” declared Archibald
Motley, Jr., in 1933, as he approached the midpoint of an already remark¬
able career. ‘‘It is my earnest desire and ambition to express the American
Negro honestly and sincerely, neither to add nor detract, and to bring
about a more sincere and brotherly feeling, a better understanding,
between him and his white brethren. 1 ”

With few exceptions Motley pursued his goal singlemindedly, choosing as his peren¬
nial subject the black community of his hometown, Chicago, where he lived for virtually
his entire career. In portraits and genre scenes he surveyed the rich variety of life in the
area of Chicago known as the Black Belt, 2 from its elegant night spots to the private inte¬
riors of its middle class to the lively social kaleidoscope of its street life. In a sense this was
his subject even when Motley portrayed other locales. His views of the people and land¬
scape of Arkansas, for instance, touched on black Chicago’s collective memory of its ori¬
gins in the South; his Paris images, from street scenes to a Senegalese youth, spoke to
African-Americans’ dream of a distant metropolis where they could find a welcoming
sanctuary and encounter their ancestral roots. Only in his Mexican work did Motley tem¬
porarily depart from his accustomed subject matter. But in works such as Another Mexican
Baby (cat. no. 57) Motley pictures Mexican peasants with a sympathy born of a shared
experience of exclusion and oppression.

Not every aspect of daily existence in the Black Belt appears in Motley’s art. His
largely upbeat paintings, often infused with affectionate humor, show a world in which
work, politics, and public issues are absent. The artist’s personal experience of racial big¬
otry is likewise invisible. 3 Motley treated relations between the races rarely, and then
obliquely: in Jockey Club (1929, cat. no. 24) and Sunday in the Park (1941, cat. no. 50), for
instance, black figures are quietly marginalized in a world of whites. In his final work, The
First One Hundred Years (c. 1963-72, cat. no. 69), Motley finally tackled head-on the sub¬
ject of black-white relations, but to do so he abandoned his usual vehicle, the “slice of
life” genre scene, for highly-charged political allegory. In most of his work, however,
Motley carefully limited the framework within which he met his ambition “to express the
Negro honestly and sincerely.” 4 In deciding in the early twenties to paint “pictures that
people will buy regardless of race, color or creed,” 5 he necessarily respected his contem¬
poraries’ preferred view of African-Americans as content in the world they created for
themselves within the limits imposed by white society. The optimism of the paintings

Fig. 22. ArchibaldJ. Motley, Jr., 1929. Chicago
Historical Society, ICHi-16136.

33

THE ART OF ARCHIBALD j. MOTLEY, JR.

Fig. 23. Henry 0. Tanner. The Banjo Lesson,
1893. Oil on canvas, 49 x 35 1/2 (124.5 x
90.2 cm). Hampton University Museum.

Fig. 24. Way man Adams. New Orleans
Mammy, c. 1920s. Oil on canvas, 39 1/2 x 29
1/2 in. (100.3 x 74.9 cm). Morris Museum of
Art, Augusta, Georgia.

34

Motley produced throughout his career marks him as an artist who matured during the
Jazz Age, in contrast to the next generation of artists, social realists who emerged in the
era of the Great Depression to tackle in their art weighty themes of social injustice and
individual despair.

In another sense, however, Motley’s very selectivity served his mission. He chose
for depiction settings and situations least conditioned by white rules and influence. From
his introspective portraits to his panoramas of Bronzeville’s nighttime street scene,
Motley presents black life at its most relaxed and unselfconscious. The subjects of his por¬
traits, from his aged grandmother (1922, cat. no. 9; 1924, cat. no. 10) to elegant
octoroons (1922, cat. no. 8; 1925, cat. no. 12), are dignified and self-possessed, at home
in their surroundings. And the figures in his genre scenes are typically too busy with their
own pleasures or concerns to even notice the viewer. They appear self-sufficient in a
world they have defined in their own terms, while the viewer, in turn, is marginalized,
unimportant and forgotten. Yet simultaneously Motley lures us into the lively world he
pictures through optical "pathways” such as the arbitrary cropping of pictorial space in
Blues (1929, cat. no. 21) and the abandoned cigarette that juts beyond the picture plane
in Saturday Night (1935, cat. no. 36). The artist thus invites us to share personally two
aspects of the black experience in American society: denigration and exclusion in relation
to the white majority, and the independent and richly vital social culture that African-
Americans created for themselves within those conditions.

In several important respects Motley himself was something of an outsider in the
world he portrayed. Light-skinned, middle-class, and Roman Catholic, he belonged to a
small minority in Chicago’s black population. He grew up not in the Black Belt but in an
adjacent white neighborhood, where he and his sister were the only black children
attending the local public elementary school, and he eventually married a white woman.
Motley’s decision to pursue a career in fine art (and his family’s support of that decision)
was even more exceptional. His study at The Art Institute of Chicago, where he
immersed himself in European academic tradition, and the exposure and recognition he
found in the artistic establishment, further separated the artist from his community. Yet
Motley consistently applied his training and talents to bridging the gulf between fine art
and everyday black life by celebrating the latter in his paintings. As a child with a passion
for sketching he went to Black Belt poolrooms, churches, and other gathering places
where he could study what he called “characters.” 6 “The thing I was trying to do," he
stated at the end of his life,

was trying to get their [African-Americans’] interest in culture, in art. I planned
that by putting them in the paintings themselves, making them part of my own
work so that they could see themselves as they are ... . I’ve always wanted to
paint my people just they way they are. 7

To the extent that he realized this goal Motley single-handedly achieved a major
breakthrough in the long history of portraying the African-American in the visual arts. 8
Departing from the nineteenth-century sentimental tradition exemplified by The Banjo
Lesson (fig. 23) by Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859-1937), 9 the most important black artist at

MOTLEY’S CHICAGO CONTEXT

the turn of the century, Motley was arguably the first artist of any color to portray black
Americans realistically in their modern, urban setting. As early as 1921, in Black and Tan
Cabaret (c. 1921, checklist no. 3), and in typical works of the twenties like Stomp (1927
checklist no. 8), Motley applied the mode of the celebratory “slice-of-life” to this
unprecedented subject matter. To do so he redefined the academic approach he so thor¬
oughly assimilated at the Art Institute and realized with admirable facility in his portraits.
For his genre scenes, Motley formulated a wholly original style that blended a deliberate
naivete in conception of form and perspective with a modernist feeling for the frenetic
tempos of contemporary urban life.

Both personally and artistically, Motley was a conscious independent who acknowl¬
edged few influences from contemporary artists. 10 His work bears suggestive similarities
to that of several, notably, as an early critic pointed out, Guy Pene du Bois (1884-1958)
(fig. 25), who was in Paris when Motley worked there in 1929-30." Motley did proclaim
his admiration for George Bellows (1882-1925), with whom he studied briefly at the Art
Institute in 1919. 12 Bellows may have conditioned Motley’s broad manner of handling
paint and the rather raking light that animates his portraits of the twenties such as
Octoroon (1922, cat. no. 8). More importantly, Bellows offered a link to the ideals and
subject matter of the circle of painters known as the Ashcan School, champions of artistic
individualism (if not stylistic radicalism) who portrayed the social and physical landscape of
New York City’s working class with an affectionate but unsparing vision. Cliff Dwellers
(1913, Los Angeles County Museum of Art), Bellows’ view of
bustling Lower East Side tenement life, points the way toward
Motley’s teeming street scenes of the thirties.

The artistic forerunners for Motley’s modern, urban
black subject matter were also white artists. Bellows’s Both
Members of This Club (fig. 26), for instance, his powerful ren¬
dering of a black boxer getting the upper hand with a white
opponent, presented the African-American with a kind of
heroic modern realism. Late in his career Motley also cited
the influence of another white painter, Wayman Adams
(1883-1959), who had moved from sentimental portrayal of
southern black types, such as the Mammy (fig. 24), to sensi¬
tive individual portraits, according to Howard University
scholar and esthete Alain Locke. 13 But Motley felt ultimately
that only a black artist could fully communicate the “the soul
and the very heart of colored people,” 14 and he bemoaned
the reluctance of black visual artists to follow the example of

black poets, musicians, and actors in reclaiming the imaging of African-Americans from
the hands of white interpreters. 15 Locally, Motley may well have been referring here to
such talented black artists as William McKnight Farrow (1885-1967), a landscapist and
student of Tanner who eschewed even the latter’s tentative artistic acknowledgement of
his racial identity. 16

Fig. 25. Guy Pene du Bois. Americans in Paris,

/ 927. Oil on canvas, 28 3/4 x 36 3/8 in. (73 x
92.4 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New
York. Given anonymously.

35

THE ART OF ARCHIBALD j. MOTLEY, JR.

Fig. 26. George Wesley Bellows. Both Members
of this Club, / 909. Oil on canvas, 45 1/4 x 63
1/8 in. (115 x 160.3 cm). National Gallery of
Art, Washington, D.G., Chester Dale Collection.

36

Motley’s dedication to artistic excellence conditioned his
promotion of black subject matter. He wanted to be judged not
as an artist of color, but simply as an artist. 17 Motley’s strong self-
identity as a fine artist dated back to his school years, when he
had “just felt that [art] was the only thing I could do,” 18 an out¬
look reinforced by the opportunity to train at the Art Institute,
the Midwest’s most prestigious art academy. In 1918, as an
ambitious young graduate hoping to receive portrait commis¬
sions from clients of any race, Motley argued that artistic excel¬
lence, rather than black subject matter, should guide the devel¬
opment of a black art. “If all Negro artists painted simply Negro
types, how long would our Negro art exist?” he asked rhetori¬
cally, as he praised the religious paintings of Henry O. Tanner for
their universality. 19 But even after he embraced black subject
matter himself a few years later, Motley continued to forge an
individual path informed by a thorough respect for sound formal technique and a desire
to make his subjects, however local or sociologically specific, a means of communication
among all races. 20 He criticized his fellow black artists not only for avoiding black subjects
in their art, but for their technical incompetence and stylistic derivativeness.^ Although he
participated in black art shows with a national scope, such as the Harmon Foundation
exhibitions of 1929 and 1931, he held aloof from the activities of local black art groups
(despite much criticism) because he felt that they promoted mediocre work. 22 His deci¬
sion to portray contemporary black urban life in turn alienated him from Chicago’s black
artists. William McKnight Farrow tried to discourage Motley from submitting Syncopation
(1924, checklist no. 4; fig. 8), along with Mending Socks (1924, cat. no. 10) and A
Mu/atress (1924, checklist no. 5), to the Art Institute’s 1925 annual exhibition of work by
local artists. 23 The exhibition marked the first time that a black artist had shown black sub¬
jects at the Art Institute, according to Motley, 24 and the paintings created an appropriate
stir, while garnering two awards for the young painter. 25

Although Motley, as a black artist embracing his racial identity, found himself some¬
what isolated in Chicago, his concerns found wider echoes. In his dedication to interpret¬
ing black life through his art, his concern for artistic quality, and his idea that art should
interpret the black experience as a vital component of American culture and society as a
whole, Motley can be seen as an important figure in the new cultural consciousness
sweeping the black American intelligentsia from the end of the Great War through the
Great Depression. 26 The New Negro Movement (one of its several names) attended the
period’s demographic upheavals, as black America largely exchanged its rural, agrarian,
southern milieu for the industrial North. The unprecedented if selective prosperity of
urbanized African-Americans, as well as the racial conflicts that followed the return of
white soldiers from the war, catalyzed an urgent search for black cultural identity. The
result was a flowering of black artistic and literary achievement under the banner of an
exuberant celebration, by African-Americans and their white admirers alike, of what

MOTLEY’S CHICAGO CONTEXT

David Driskell has termed “Negritude.” 27

The movement’s most influential manifesto was The New Negro of 1925, a remark¬
able collection of poetry, stories, essays, and images gathered by Alain Locke. Locke
hoped that the publication would show “the Negro in his essential traits, in the full per¬
spective of his achievement and possibilities,” both affirming his racial identity and claiming
an equal place in American culture and society. 28 Like the book, the movement itself was
riddled with unresolvable contradictions and tensions: between the essentially elitist out¬
look of its leaders and the down-home reality of America’s black masses; between stylis¬
tic realism or academicism and a back-to-Africa primitivism; between separatists and inte¬
gration's struggling to define the African-American’s role in and relationship to American
society; between an art in service to Truth, and an art devoted to uplifting the race. 29
Nonetheless, it nurtured a black consciousness in the visual arts that has continued to
flower to the present. 30

The New Negro Movement is most familiar in its New York manifestation. Harlem,
the movement’s self-appointed spiritual home, lent its name and captured the popular
imagination. The Harlem Renaissance still conjures up glittering images: Ellington at the
Cotton Club, Bessie Smith belting out the blues, poets Langston Hughes and Countee
Cullen, a host of talented performers, literati, artists, and thinkers—all passionately lion¬
ized by tuxedoed high society, black and white. 31 The image of the Harlem Renaissance,
as captured in the polished photographs of James Van Der Zee (1886-1983), has perma¬
nently enriched our common American perception of the Jazz Age.

There can be little question that New York was the literary and intellectual, as well
as social, capital of the New Negro Movement. But scholars have long disagreed in their
assessments of the visual art of the Harlem Renaissance. 32 The work of such figures as
Aaron Douglas (1899-1979), Palmer Hayden (1890-1973), Meta Warrick Fuller
(1877-1968), and William H. Johnson (1901-70) has been labeled as derivative and
uninspired. 33 While this judgment now seems irrelevant, an examination of Motley’s
career and work puts the achievement of these “Harlem Renaissance artists” into per¬
spective. In comparison to the works with which Motley made an independent break¬
through in subject matter and style in the early twenties, Fuller’s sculpture seems mired
in academic convention and racial stereotypes, 34 while Douglas’s murals and illustrations
and the paintings of Hayden and Johnson expressing the New Negro Movement’s racial
consciousness are, at the least, behindhand. Douglas emerged around 1925 with a
unique symbolic and decorative style at least superficially influenced by indigenous African
arts, but it was not until the following decade that Hayden and Johnson found their artis¬
tic voices as interpreters of black subjects. 35 By then, Motley had long since claimed his
unique vision of Chicago’s Bronzeville both in sensitive if stylistically conventional portraits
of its women and in original, exuberant images of its cabaret scene.

Motley’s achievement seems particularly remarkable in light of his detachment from
Harlem’s artistic scene. He may well have traveled to New York when, during his early
adult years, he accompanied his father, a Pullman car porter, on the latter’s travels. 36 But
he recorded no contacts made there until Art Institute president Robert B. Harshe pro-

Fig. 2 7. Aaron Douglas. The Creation, / 935.
Oil on masonite, 48 x 36 in. (121 x 9 1.4 cm).
Permanent Collection, Howard University
Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

37

THE ART OF ARCHIBALD J. MOTLEY, JR.

moted his work (without revealing the painter’s racial identity) to George S. Heilman, the
director of New York’s New Gallery, where Motley’s one-man exhibition was held early
in 1928. Late in life the artist spoke of the jealousy that his exhibition’s enormous com¬
mercial and critical success inspired among the New York artists. 37 He, in turn, main¬
tained his distance. When influential Harlemite Bessie Bearden invited the artist to a for¬
mal reception in his honor, Motley declined, 38 and he chose to have little contact with the
black visitors he encountered in his exhibition. 39 He seems to have been unimpressed by
the art of black New Yorkers: “There was no Renaissance,” he later stated bluntly. 40

Motley’s sense of separateness from the New York art scene was the obverse of his
conscious commitment to his hometown. 41 He was acutely aware of the rivalry between
the two cities, attributing to his New York counterparts resentment that they “have to
send all the way to Chicago to send a Chicago artist here to have a one-man show in
New York.” 42 But his affection for his city was independent of his experience in New
York. “I can’t find any place like Chicago,” he once said, “You know, I love this place.” 43
Homesickness brought him back from Paris within a year, despite his enjoyment of his
stay in France and the Guggenheim Foundation’s offer to extend his fellowship there for
another six months. 44 While Europe provided a nurturing second home to numerous
black artists following the example of the expatriate Tanner and New York proved an
irresistible magnet for Chicago’s creative talent, black as well as white, Motley rarely left
his hometown. Chicago was not only the artist’s residence in a personal sense; it was
central to his art.

Motley’s rootedness in Chicago, in fact, may have encouraged more than ham¬
pered his artistic breakthrough in the portrayal of urban black subject matter. Chicago’s
vitality as the quintessential “Black Metropolis” during the era of the New Negro
Movement offered him inspiration and subject matter from the birth of his artistic ambi¬
tions until the very end of his career. The city’s artistic life and traditions, from the Art
Institute to the independent art circles with which he associated, fostered and condi¬
tioned the development of Motley’s individual artistic outlook. These two aspects of
Motley’s Chicago setting bear particular examination for their role in his art.

In The New Negro, Alain Locke acknowledged that Harlem was only one (if the
most important) of a series of “awakened centers” of the affirmative new racial culture
called the New Negro Movement. 45 If New York was the movement’s acknowledged
capital, its closest rival “in symbolic power to seize the imagination” 46 was undoubtedly
Chicago, home to one of the largest, most prosperous, and politically powerful urban
black communities in the nation. Even Bronzeville’s boosters did not pretend that it could
challenge Harlem’s artistic preeminence: the midwestern metropolis, as black sociologist
E. Franklin Frazier admitted bluntly, “has no intelligentsia.” 47 Rather, as Carroll Binder
argued, “Chicago’s pre-eminence lies in the business and professional attainments of its
people,” 48 from the Victory Life Insurance Company to the Defender, the first truly
national black newspaper. Frazier described Chicago affirmatively as “a cross-section of
Negro life”: precisely because it lacked New York’s cosmopolitan character, Chicago rep¬
resented “more nearly the pattern of Negro life at large in America.” 49 By implication, the

38

MOTLEY’S CHICAGO CONTEXT

the city offered a richer, truer fund of experience and subjects for the black artist, without the

sarly self-conscious cultural posturing of its more sophisticated rival metropolis. In a sense,

Dm- then, Chicago presented a more complete realization of ideals of the New Negro

ain- Movement than Harlem—in its economic successes, its self-contained social life and its

for- striving for racial solidarity and self-sufficient community.

the As the object of close scrutiny by the pioneering sociologists at the nearby

by University of Chicago, Bronzeville emerged by the thirties as a symbol of the modern

“black metropolis" to the nation as a whole. 50 Motley’s views of everyday life there
his affirmed this positive image of his hometown as a place where modern black popular cul-

^en ture and social life were at their most natural and fully realized. It was for the audience of

to his New York exhibition, on the other hand, that he treated African religious myths in

in paintings like Kikuyu God of Fire (1927 cat. no. 14). While such works (painted, it should

?w be noted, at the urging of the gallery director) reflect the popularity of African tribal arts

as a source of inspiration in the forging of a black American cultural identity, 51 they seem a
nis digression in Motley’s work. Back in Chicago, and even in Paris, he continued to charac-

or terize the black experience through familiar images of contemporary urban life, “in order

us to make my people really feel they are taking part and are a part of these paintings.’’ 52

an Despite his voodoo paintings, then, Motley disagreed with Alain Locke’s argument that

aft black American artists (like European avant-garde artists) should draw their inspiration

as from African tribal arts—an argument heeded by artists as diverse as Meta Warwick Fuller

in her Ethiopia Awakening and Aaron Douglas in his hierarchically stylized murals and
l- book illustrations.

’s Motley’s growing-up in Chicago coincided with the city’s evolution into the “Black

o Metropolis," the transformation of its black population from a small, geographically scat-

i- tered, and quietly overlooked minority into a cohesive community, segregated into a

t large Black Belt on the city’s South Side but recognized as a major player in the city’s var¬

ied and sometimes volatile sociological and political mix. To understand the nature of that
>f community, and Motley’s picturing of it, a brief outline of Bronzeville’s history and social

organization is necessary.

i Bronzeville

I When the Motley family arrived in Chicago in the winter of 1893-94, Chicago was city of

' immigrants, among whom the once-negligible black population was growing rapidly. By

1890 there were about fourteen thousand African-Americans in the city, double the
number of a mere decade before, and by century’s end the black population had dou¬
bled again to more than thirty thousand. But this number was dwarfed by the increase
that occurred during the Great Migration of 1916-20, a mass exodus of black southerners
to northern cities to fill labor shortages brought about by World War I. Between the war
and the depression half a million African-Americans moved north, and by 1930 almost a
quarter of a million of them counted Chicago as their home. 53 These people and their
neighborhoods would become an inexhaustible fund of subjects and inspiration for
Archibald J. Motley, Jr.

39

THE ART OF ARCHIBALD J. MOTLEY, JR.

Whereas earlier black migrants to Chicago had included a significant proportion of
midwesterners, 54 the 1890s saw a rising tide of arrivals from the South. This exodus of
what has been referred to—with some exaggeration—as the black South’s “talented
tenth” involved a population that was disproportionately urban, literate, and from the
upper South and the border states of Tennessee, Kentucky, and Missouri. 55 Among them
were prominent leaders, such as activist Ida B. Wells and the influential pastor Archibald J.
Carey, as well as unknown but enterprising individuals who would establish themselves
as bastions of Chicago’s black elite. After the turn of the century, however, the city’s black
immigrants tended to be natives of the Deep South, notably Mississippi, Alabama,
Georgia, and Louisiana. 56 Typically rural and deprived of economic and educational
opportunities, they also bore the legacy of slavery. For them, migration to a northern,
industrial metropolis was a dramatic change.

Expanded opportunities in the North coupled with deteriorating economic and
social conditions in the South encouraged thousands of black southerners to move North
at the outbreak of World War I. The war stimulated basic industry in cities like Chicago at
the same time that it cut off the supply of cheap European immigrant labor on which that
industry depended. To fill the gap, labor agents from Chicago came south to recruit black
workers. Few needed much encouragement to jettison their low wages, precarious
employment, and substandard housing. The mass exodus known as the Great Migration
was on.

Chicago held particular appeal for many black southerners. The Illinois Central
Railroad, which Archibald Motley, Sr., rode as a Pullman car porter, connected Chicago
to a network of southern terminuses from Savannah, Georgia, to New Orleans. For
northbound travelers Chicago was the gateway to the Midwest and a new life. 57 Its repu¬
tation as one of the nation’s largest industrial centers held out the promise of mass
employment for the unskilled, while its thriving black community was well known.
Residents of even the remotest backwater of the Deep South knew of Chicago as the
source of the Sears, Roebuck and Company catalog, the epitome of urban modernity.
Chicago was the home of the famed World’s Columbian Exposition; of the American
Giants, a black baseball team that toured the South; and of the widely read black news¬
paper the Defender, which spread nationwide the message of opportunity in Chicago. As
black southerners arrived there they wrote home encouraging friends and relations to
join them. Whole hamlets, extended families, and church congregations heeded the
message, often forming “migration clubs" to pool the expenses and cushion the shock of
the journey. 58

Black migrants to Chicago quickly discovered that the North offered barriers of its
own to equal treatment and opportunity. New arrivals encountered the first barrier in
their search for housing. Although the city’s few African-Americans of several decades
earlier had lived in several neighborhoods in the city, by the 1890s blacks were increas-
ingly segregated on Chicago’s Near South Side, and in a smaller enclave on the West
Side. The South Side Black Belt, as it became known, was anchored on the north by the
Illinois Central Depot at Michigan Avenue and Twelfth Street (now Roosevelt Road),

40

MOTLEY’S CHICAGO CONTEXT

n of where the migrants alighted at journey’s end. Nearby Chicago’s main vice district was

is of one of the few neighborhoods in the city where rental housing and employment were

ited relatively unrestricted by color. From Twelfth Street the Black Belt ran south in a narrow

the strip with State Street as its backbone. As Chicago’s black population exploded with the

lem Great Migration, the area slowly expanded its boundaries, while the concentration of

Id J. black, relative to white, residents rose rapidly. The Black Belt expanded eastward into

Ives what had been prosperous native-born white neighborhoods near the lakeshore, where

lack former mansions of the elite were subdivided into cheap rental flats, and pressed into

na, working-class Irish enclaves to the west. The commercial heart of Bronzeville drifted

>nal south, from Thirty-fifth and State streets in the teens and twenties, to Forty-seventh

im, Street and South Parkway (now Martin Luther King, Jr., Drive) by the World War II era.

The Black Belt accounted for at least 90 percent of Chicago’s black residents; the remain-
ind der lived scattered throughout the city, mainly in South Side neighborhoods such as

rth Woodlawn, Hyde Park, and Morgan Park, and on the West Side in an area roughly

) at bounded by California and Ashland avenues and Madison and Kinzie streets. When

hat Archibald J. Motley, Sr., moved his family to 6544 South Morgan Street, in the largely

ick German, Swedish, and Irish district of Englewood, around 1897 “We were the only col-

>us ored family in the block,” the artist recalled. 59 By 1920, however, nearly two thousand

on black residents lived in the neighborhood, now only a few blocks west of the expanding

Black Belt. 60

ral Increasing pressure for housing in the relatively confined area of the Black Belt cre-

go ated friction with neighboring areas as African-Americans sought to escape crowded,

or deteriorating tenements and the hazards of the vice industries. To the south and west in

u- particular, they often encountered stiff resistance. Before the Great Migration, one mid-

ss dle-class black family, like the Motleys, was accepted, 6 ' but the larger numbers pressing

n. the boundaries of the Black Belt in the late teens and twenties provoked hostility or flight.

ie In some areas, notably Hyde Park and Kenwood, white property owners formed restric-

y. tive organizations to discourage black infiltration in the belief that it would lower property

in values. In fact, landlords found they could charge significantly higher rents to black ten-

s- ants, who had few alternatives or avenues of protest. 62 Whites also resisted the

Vs encroachment of African-Americans by violence. In disputed neighborhoods bombings of

:o properties rented or purchased by African-Americans and the offices and homes of real

e estate agents and owners, both black and white, who rented or sold to African-

Americans occurred almost monthly in Chicago between 1917 and 1921. 63

Conflict between the races was highly localized, however, and only serves to
:s underscore the extent to which African-Americans, unlike any other ethnic population in

n the city, were segregated geographically. Restrictions on employment further ensured the

s invisibility of African-Americans, who constituted little more than 4 percent of Chicago’s

residents even after the height of the Great Migration, in 1920. Despite legal provisions
;t for equal access, municipal services, public facilities, and integrated schools were effec-

3 tively closed to African-Americans. Streets and streetcars were the only places where

, African-Americans and whites mingled on an equal footing. 64 For recent migrants from

41

THE ART OF ARCHIBALD j. MOTLEY, JR.

the South, this in itself represented unimagined freedoms. One recalled:

When I got here and got on the street cars and saw colored people sitting by
white people all over the car I just held my breath, for I thought any minute
they would start something, then I saw nobody noticed it, and I just thought
this was a real place for colored people. 65

In public places like restaurants and bars, white proprietors discouraged the patron¬
age of African-Americans by subtle means—ignoring them, for instance, rather than actu¬
ally refusing to serve them. 66 This “shifting line of color," a set of unwritten rules that were
a shadow of the South’s Jim Crow laws, governed black life in northern white society.
Infringement—even unintentional—invited swift reprisal. In the summer of 1919, a black
youth who had strayed into white territory at a Chicago city beach was stoned to death,
sparking a major race riot that left thirty-eight people dead, many injured, and almost one
thousand African-Americans homeless after five days of mob violence. 67

Although Chicago segregated its African-American population as a single mass, that
community itself was stratified by class, money, education, and color. Until the first
decade of the new century its elite was dominated by “Old Settlers” whose Chicago
roots extended back as much as a half-century before the Great Migration. By the turn of
the century their leaders were largely professionals: lawyers, doctors, and clergymen.
Later, a new elite of self-made businessmen moved into positions of influence in the
Black Belt. Jesse Binga, for instance, made a fortune in real estate and founded the Binga
Bank in 1908; real estate man Oscar De Priest became Chicago’s first black alderman and
the first African-American from the North to be elected to the United States Congress;
and Robert S. Abbott, who trained as an attorney, founded the enormously influential
black newspaper the Defender in 1905 with capital of twenty-five cents. 68

By the time of the Great Migration, these men and their families defined South Side
society. They were tireless founders and supporters of organizations and institutions
designed to give Chicago’s African-Americans the services and amenities denied them by
whites, from financial credit to medical training, from rental housing to social activities.
While an earlier generation had struggled to eradicate barriers to black participation in
mainstream American life, the leaders who emerged after the turn of the century advo¬
cated a self-help philosophy molded by the example of Booker T Washington. 69
Provident Hospital, the Wabash Avenue YMCA, the Negro Business League, the
Chicago Urban League, the Defender, the Chicago branch of the National Association for
the Advancement of Colored People, the Negro Fellowship League, and countless black
social clubs, churches, civic and cultural organizations, and businesses all contributed to
the autonomy of Chicago’s black community.

Chicago’s small black upper and middle classes were acutely conscious of the tenu¬
ous position they had caved out for their community in the city as a whole. While wel¬
coming the migrants as a potential source of political and economic clout, they feared
that the newcomers, with their “down-home” tastes and demeanor and their ignorance
of the unwritten rules governing racial relations in the North, would derail hard-won
progress toward racial equality and respect. 70 On streets and streetcars, the dress and

42

MOTLEY’S CHICAGO CONTEXT

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demeanor of recent migrants from the Deep South fed whites’ stereotypes and attracted
strenuous reform efforts by the black establishment. The Urban League, the Defender,
the YMCA, and other organizations sought to indoctrinate “correct” behavior. In pam¬
phlets, advertisements, and lectures they exhorted black citizens to watch their language,
wash their hands, attend church, and dress appropriately for public places. Above all,
they were reminded that “If you do well you will serve not only yourself but the

ENTIRE RACE .” 71

With or without the guidance or approval of these arbiters of proper behavior, the
migrants permanently altered the face of Chicago’s Black Belt. Often excluded from the
social life of the black elite and uncomfortable in their relatively staid churches and clubs,
they shaped the landscape of the Black Belt to accommodate their own needs and tastes.
South State Street sprouted new storefront churches, music halls, chicken shacks, and
perennial street-corner gatherings, a “Bohemia of the Colored Folks,” in the vivid
description of the black newspaper Chicago Whip. 72 From social style to food, music to
religion, the culture of the rural Deep South was transported wholesale to the pavement
of Chicago’s Black Belt. Motley’s street scenes include evidence of the vitality of southern
culture in the urban north, from the fundamentalist street preacher in Gettin’ Religion
(1948, cat. no. 55), to restaurant signs offering southern specialties (including the fish and
shrimp of the Motley family’s native Louisiana) in Casey and Mae in the Street (1948, cat.
no. 54) and Chicken Shack (c. 1936, checklist no. 53). As these works suggest, the rela¬
tive rigidity of black class structure 73 did not extend to the use of public spaces. In the
Black Belt’s lively commercial streets upper class met working class, “Old Settlers” min¬
gled with newly arrived “Home Folks,” and “shadies” from the criminal world rubbed
elbows with churchgoing “respectables” and fashionable, social-climbing “dicties.” Chicken
Shack, for instance, includes a range of types, from businessmen in hats and suits to a
man sitting on the curb eating and two men tippling under the streetlight; the foreground
contrasts a well-dressed family group with a pair of stylishly attired lovers.

Motley paid particular attention to one special factor in Bronzeville’s social differenti¬
ation: skin color. Black society was stratified by skin tone, a reflection of the white world’s
discrimination in favor of relative lightness in African-Americans. 74 Some Black Belt clubs
consistently chose fair-skinned individuals for its members, and socially ambitious men
were said to favor “white-looking” women as wives. 75 The Motley family’s Creole her¬
itage and light coloring helped to place them solidly in Chicago’s black middle class.
Motley remained acutely conscious of skin color, which became a central motif in his art.
As a portraitist in the twenties he addressed the special status that black Chicago accord¬
ed to lightness by seeking out women of mixed racial ancestry as models and drawing
attention to their racial makeup with titles like The Octoroon (1922, cat. no. 8) and The
Quadroon (1927 checklist no. I7). 76 Later, in genre paintings such as The Picnic (1936, cat.
no. 39), he portrayed a range of skin colors, showing stylish young women in light tones
and their male companions as dark-skinned. “I was trying to fill what they call the full
gamut, or the race as a whole,” he remarked late in life.

[I]n all my paintings where you see a group of people you’ll notice that they’re

43

THE ART OF ARCHIBALD j. MOTLEY, JR.

Fig. 28. Palmer Hayden. Nous Quatre a Paris,
c. 1935. Watercolor on paper. The Metropolitan
Museum of Art, Purchase, 1975. Joseph H.
Hazen Foundation Inc. Gift Fund.

all a little different color. They’re not all the same
color, they’re not all black, they’re not, as they used
to say years ago, high yellow, they’re not all brown. I
try to give each of them character as individuals. 77
But for Motley skin color was more than a sociological fact
to record. The numerous shades of coloration he found among
African-Americans influenced his preference for color over form
in the creation of his paintings, he noted, 78 and he used skin
tone as an independent element of formal composition. In
Blues, for instance, bronze skin plays against rich dark brown to
complement the contrapuntal rhythm established by the
arrangement of the shapes of heads, backs, arms, and other
forms. Motley’s concern for skin color is most apparent in com¬
parison to two other portrayers of black life, Palmer Hayden
(1893-1973) (fig. 28) and Jacob Lawrence (b. 1917) (fig. 29),
who render generic African-Americans as uniformly brown or
literally black.

Educational level also divided Chicago’s black social classes.
Academic credentials bestowed a dignity and status that occupa¬
tion, circumscribed as it was by the white world, might not. 79
Aspiring to better educational opportunities, black migrants from
the South found that Chicago’s public schools, like the neigh¬
borhoods they served, were overcrowded and increasingly seg¬
regated. Teachers and administrators, most of whom were white, were determined to
make schools the instruments of rigorous socialization for recent migrants, who found
their clothes, speech, and habits subject to ridicule from both white adults and the chil¬
dren of the Old Settlers. Nonetheless, northern schools did offer higher standards and
the promise of social mobility. Although the educational level of black Chicagoans
remained relatively low and illiteracy rates were high, the high school diploma was a cov¬
eted status symbol for upwardly mobile families. 80

White Chicago’s restriction of the employment opportunities open to black
Chicagoans may partly explain Motley’s indifference to the theme of work in his paint¬
ings. The Black Belt’s small elite included men in business and the professions, who cre¬
ated a separate but parallel economy in their community. Those who fulfilled aspirations
for racial autonomy and solidarity by leading black institutions and providing jobs and ser¬
vices in the Black Belt were respected as “race leaders.’’ Black businessmen had to be
particularly resourceful in order to find capital in their circumscribed and relatively impov¬
erished community. While in some fields, like retailing, they faced stiff competition from
white businesses that operated in the Black Belt, a few black entrepreneurs scored
notable success in insurance, banking, newspaper publishing, and other areas where
white concerns refused to serve black needs. 81

However, most working African-Americans were forced to adjust to the strictures

MOTLEY’S CHICAGO CONTEXT

of the white workplace. Middle-class, educated individuals often found modest niches in
the white economy. As hotel waiters, Pullman porters, or servants in well-to-do white
households, they at least dressed well and worked in a relatively clean, safe environment.
But migrants who had been schoolteachers, a profession that carried considerable status
in the South, were barred from teaching in Chicago by the disparity in educational
requirements. 82

The mass of lower-class blacks encountered formidable barriers to employment in
Chicago’s economy. Many migrants had worked in agriculture in the South or in indus¬
tries with no equivalent in Chicago, 83 while even those with skills appropriate to the
urban, industrial workplace found themselves excluded by restrictive standards or blatant
racial discrimination. 84 Under these constraints, many black men turned to unskilled occu¬
pations such as factory workers, laborers, and janitors. 85 Black workers had in the past
often been hired as strikebreakers. 86 Until the 1930s mutual hostility effectively kept them
out of many industrial and trade unions, and they were restricted to the lowest-paying
and most hazardous jobs in industry. 87 For women, there were even fewer opportuni¬
ties; domestic service was the mainstay even among the educated. 88 Geographical segre¬
gation brought added inconvenience and hardship: unlike most of Chicago’s migrants,
who settled in neighborhoods near factories and other sites of mass employment, black
workers faced a daily commute to the workplace. 89

The extensive segregation of black Chicago stopped short of the ballot box. In 1929
E. Franklin Frazier noted that Chicago “has long been known as the political paradise of
the Negro” 90 —particularly compared to the experience of migrants from the South.
White politicians, such as Republican William Hale Thompson, who capitalized on tradi¬
tional black allegiance to the party of Abraham Lincoln, actively courted the black vote. 91
The Black Belt’s considerable electoral clout, however, did not translate into improved
conditions for the majority of its inhabitants. During the depression they began to trade
Republican loyalty for reform. The welfare programs of the era attracted black support to
the Democratic party. Many African-Americans even briefly threw their allegiance to the
communist and socialist parties, which championed working-class solidarity and resisted
the evictions of unemployed renters in the Black Belt. 92

Far more central to the everyday life of Chicago’s African-Americans was the
church. The Black Belt’s class structure manifested itself in affiliation with particular
denominations and congregations. The upper and middle classes flocked to various
branches of the Baptist and Methodist churches, with much smaller numbers identifying
with the Presbyterian, Congregational, Episcopal, and Roman Catholic churches. The
larger black congregations bought up church buildings and synagogues from fleeing white
congregations. These churches grew enormously during the Great Migration. The
largest, Olivet Baptist Church at Dearborn and Twenty-seventh streets, for instance,
blossomed from a membership of about four thousand in 1915 to more than nine thou¬
sand in I920. 93

Olivet and other big churches supported social services fueled by energetic
fundraising, but the activities of civic organizations, social clubs, and the YMCA made

Fig. 29. Jacob Lawrence. Tombstones, 1942.
Gouache on paper. 28 3/4 x 20 1/2 in.

(73 x 52.1 cm). Collection of the Whitney
Museum of American Art, New York

45

THE ART OF ARCHIBALD J. MOTLEY, JR.

them less important in this role than they had been in the South. Their dignified, rather
staid services reflected the aspirations of the black middle class, leaving many newcomers
from the South dissatisfied. Recent migrants thus turned to storefront churches, the num¬
ber of which rose dramatically during the Great Migration. Identified mainly with the
Holiness or Pentecostal sects, the storefronts often depended on the presence of a
charismatic preacher with little formal education or theological training, like Elder Lucy
Smith, whose All Nations Pentecostal Church was a South Side fixture in the 1930s. 94
Such churches preserved a fundamentalist style of worship native to black churches of
the rural South, as illustrated in Motley’s Tongues (1929, cat. no. 25). Storefront services
featured many “primitive” elements disdained in “respectable” churches: lively music,
active participation by the worshippers, and spontaneous, emotional demonstrations of
the spirit, such as “speaking in tongues.” 95

Motley’s painting Gettiri Religion (1948, cat. no. 55), with its soapbox preacher sur¬
rounded by a whirl of varied social types, bears out poet Langston Hughes’s description
of “teeming” South State Street, “full of workers and gamblers, prostitutes and pimps,
church folks and sinners” where “Midnight was like day.” 96 The ubiquitous storefront
churches and itinerant evangelists rubbed shoulders with less spiritual elements in the
lively physical and social landscape of the Black Belt, which supported saloons, gambling
dens, poolrooms, and streetwalkers. The vice industries, which had been among the
least restrictive employers of African-Americans, offered them opportunities for
entrepreneurship comparable to those in the legitimate fields of newspaper publishing
and insurance. 97 “Policy,” a lottery racket open to even the modest gambler, was particu¬
larly popular, and “policy kings” gained the status of “race heroes,” especially when the
depression devastated numerous legitimate black businesses. 98 Policy was one of the
many inexpensive pleasures—legal and otherwise—-that made up what sociologists St.
Clair Drake and Horace Cayton summarized as “having a good time,” one of the five
‘Axes of Life” defining the aspirations of the black community. 99 Motley typically presents
Black Belt life as if “having a good time” is the most characteristic of the “axes.” Many of
his scenes are set in places of leisure and pleasure, where his figures dance and listen to
music, flirt, eat and drink, shoot pool, play cards, or simply talk, leaving the cares of daily
life in home and workplace behind them. 100 Even the street, as featured in Bronzeville at
Night (1949, cat. no. 56), is the scene of lively social interaction. While some figures
merely rush to their destinations, absorbed in their cares, for others the street is an exhil¬
arating locale for seeing and being seen, for chatting and mingling.

Motley’s earliest genre paintings of Bronzeville life, Black and Tan Cabaret (1921,
checklist no. 3), Syncopation (1924, checklist no. 4; fig. 14), and Stomp (1927 checklist no.
8) are nightlife scenes that convey the importance of popular music in Bronzeville. The
district was famed for its theaters, dance halls, and black-and-tan cabarets, which attract¬
ed both white and black patrons. The centrality of jazz and the blues to both the subject
matter and style of Motley’s painting may be regarded as another function of its specifical¬
ly Chicago setting. Patronized by white and black alike, Bronzeville’s music industry was
one of the birthplaces of twentieth-century American popular music. Again, this reflected

46

MOTLEY’S CHICAGO CONTEXT

ather the impact of geography on the social development of the Black Belt. Thanks to its close

mers connections to New Orleans, black Chicago played a major role in the evolution of

lum- Dixieland band music into the “hot” jazz of the twenties, 01 while the influx of migrants

i the from rural Mississippi to the Black Belt made Chicago the birthplace of urban blues. 02 The

of a South Side was alive with music. The Cabaret de Champion, the Savoy Ballroom, and

Lucy the Dreamland, Sunset, and Pekin cafes were among the numerous popular entertain-

10s. 94 ment spots with national reputations. Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway,

ss of and other stars made frequent Chicago appearances, 103 and the Aristocrat, Chess, and

✓ices Okey recording labels disseminated their sounds to fans nationwide. Saturday Night

usic, (1935, cat. no. 36), with its visual rhythms and seductive lighting, is one of many works in

is of which Motley acknowledges the significance of Chicago’s black music scene, both for the

pleasure it brought to the people of Bronzeville and for the fame it brought Chicago well
sur- beyond the Midwest.

>tion Music was one field in which Chicago presented a formidable challenge to Harlem’s

nps, preeminence as a black cultural capital. Otherwise, however, the Midwest metropolis’s

ront "furious striving after commercial glory,” 04 while offering perhaps a more genuine specta-

the cle of modern black life, presented daunting challenges for the fine artist. Motley, though

>ling intent on making art relevant to his community by making that community his subject,

the was repeatedly disappointed by the failure of his hometown’s African-Americans to invest

for in its own artists. Bronzeville offered many examples of economic achievement, but its

hing successful entrepreneurs lacked culture, in Motley’s assessment, a sensitivity for the value

icu- of art over more transient material possessions. 05 He recalled bitterly that when Art

the Institute director Robert B. Harsche, one of his great early supporters, tried to interest

the black business leaders in Motley’s works, they "accused him of meddling in their personal

St. financial affairs and . . .telling them how to spend their money.” 06 Ironically, while the

five artist portrayed African-Americans in order to foster their appreciation of art, his patrons

?nts "were basically white,” he recalled at the end of his career:

✓ of [OJur people had very little interest in art. And that was a thing I have tried

) to hard all my life to instill into them that they should have more appreciation of

aily art. We have men who are financially capable to buy [sic] paintings but they’d

■ at buy anything but paintings. They’d buy nice big Cadillacs or Rolls Royce[s]. 07

res The irony of Motley’s failure to find patronage among the very people he served by his

hil- art recapitulates one dilemma on which the Harlem Renaissance itself ultimately

foundered: how to reconcile the art ideal with the realities of African-American life.

21, Despite its obvious affinities with the ideals and images of the New Negro

"io. Movement as a national, or at least New York, phenomenon, however, Motley’s work

he reflects his local artistic roots. His fundamentally conservative artistic temperament, with

■ct- an unwavering commitment to representational art, his penchant for a lighthearted tone

set within the framework of social realism, the academic technical foundation to his paintings,

al- his early attraction to portraiture, even his relationship with the white artistic community

✓as can all be traced to Chicago’s peculiar artistic atmosphere and tradition. Although

ed Motley’s place in the history of African-American art has been well established, his art has

47

THE ART OF ARCHIBALD J. MOTLEY, JR.

never been examined in the context of Chicago’s art history, a history which itself largely
remains to be written. 108

Chicago’s Art Scene

By the World War I era, when Motley was a student at The Art Institute of Chicago, the
city was the artistic capital of the Midwest and a formidable rival to New York and other
established East Coast art centers. It boasted important private art collections, a fine art
museum, regular exhibitions of contemporary art, and art clubs, schools, periodicals, crit¬
ics, and suppliers. 109 Chicago’s emergence as an artistic center, however, was remarkably
recent. Before the Great Fire of 1871 the city, culturally speaking, was a mere frontier
outpost, looking eastward for artistic direction. Local tastes ran to pedestrian portraiture
and idealized views of distinctly non-local landscapes. The Great Fire of 1871 gave birth
to a new and expanded moneyed elite, an explosion of architectural creativity, and a new
era in Chicago’s artistic life, signaled by the founding of the Chicago Academy of Fine
Arts, later The Art Institute of Chicago, in 1879. From the first it was both an art school
and a museum, offering regular art exhibitions that stimulated collecting among the city’s
wealthy citizens. 110 A host of art clubs, notably the Chicago Society of Artists, sprang up to
provide a supportive network and sympathetic exposure for the city’s painters and sculp¬
tors. 1 " The Athenaeum, the Tree Studio Building, and the Fine Arts Building were the
sites of fashionable studio gatherings and offered artistic meccas equivalent to New York
City’s Tenth Street Studio Building. Fledgling sculptors flocked to Lorado Taft’s Midway
Studio on the South Side; and artists established rustic summer retreats at the Eagle’s
Nest at Oregon, Illinois, and elsewhere." 2 By the time it hosted the World’s Columbian
Exposition in 1893, Chicago had become an art center in its own right.

Chicago’s artistic tastes were conservative, typified by collector Martin A. Ryerson
and Art Institute director Charles L. Hutchinson. 113 Civic leaders with roots in New
England and a tradition of public philanthropy, they looked to Europe, the academy, and
the past for their aesthetic standards, and collected according to their firm conviction in
the power of art as a tool for civic reform. Old Master pictures and Barbizon landscapes,
along with a few modern portraits, graced the drawing rooms of the city’s wealthy resi¬
dents. Even Chicago’s enthusiasm for French impressionist painting (following Boston’s
lead) confirmed her elite’s penchant for art that offered an escape from urban realities.
Ironically, while the Art Institute offered pioneering annual exhibitions of art by contem¬
porary American and local artists, Chicago collectors showed little interest in their
work—except in the realm of conventional portraiture. 114 A generation later, even the
city’s pioneering collectors of modern art, like Arthur Jerome Eddy, frankly ignored the
local art scene." 5

Nothing more perfectly characterized Chicago’s artistic outlook than the World’s
Columbian Exposition of 1893. In the reverent homage to Beaux Arts classicism
expressed in its architecture, murals, sculptures, and fountains, the White City
announced Chicago’s cultural arrival by trumpeting her respect for European tradition. Its
enormous art exhibition brought the latest in European painting to the American audi-

48

MOTLEY’S CHICAGO CONTEXT

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ence, demonstrated by comparison the conservatism of American artists, and virtually
excluded local talent. For Chicagoans such as sculptor Lorado Taft, the fair fueled a fer¬
vent but unfounded hope that their city was ready to assume the leadership of American
art centers. Instead, the spectacle of 1893 affirmed Chicago’s conservative artistic tem¬
perament and her role as a nursery for creative talent flowing toward the irresistible mag¬
net of New York." 6 By the turn of the century Chicago’s artistic atmosphere, as Neil
Harris has argued, was characterized by provincial conservatism mingled with the diffi¬
dence of its “second-city” mentality." 7 As late as 1921, Daniel Burnham’s 1909 Plan for
Chicago, a pioneering project in urban design, rather than a great work of painting or
sculpture, was held up as “the city’s outstanding esthetic achievement” even by the direc¬
tor of the Art Institute. 118

The School of the Art Institute, where Archibald Motley began his studies in 1914,
played a key role in Chicago’s artistic conservatism." 9 Instruction was modeled on the
French academic plan, in which student work was subjected to constant review and pub¬
lic criticism by instructors. 120 Students progressed from drawing to painting, from working
in black-and-white to color, from studying basic geometric forms and anatomical models
to copying from casts of ancient and Italian Renaissance sculpture before working from
the live figure. Motley, well trained in draftsmanship at Englewood High School, placed in
the antique class (just below the life class) on his entrance to the four-year course of
instruction. He was well prepared to assimilate the teachings of a program shaped by the
likes of Paris-trained painter John Vanderpoel (?—1911), who had made the naturalistic
rendering of the human figure the cornerstone of the school’s approach. 121

Motley’s stay at the Art Institute coincided with a period of upheaval for its school.
John Norton, under whom Motley studied, heralded an era of more progressive teach¬
ers who questioned its traditional educational program. The Chicago presentation of the
exhibition of European avant-garde art known as the Armory Show in 1913 created a vir¬
tual panic throughout Chicago’s art community and inspired a handful of young artists,
like Rudolph Weisenborn (1881-1973), with the iconoclasm of modernism. 122 The year
after the Armory Show stirred Chicago, the death of Art Institute director William R.
French, a staunch supporter of the school, ushered in a period of administrative instability
in which the school’s position relative to the museum was opened to question. 123 During
these years, too, the electrifying presence of young Polish artist Stanislaus Szukalski
(1895-1984), whose visionary, tormented images were featured in two separate one-
person shows at the Art Institute, gave voice to the pent-up demands for greater self-
expression among Chicago’s more progressive artists. 124

Despite these changes, however, the school remained a fundamentally consevative
institution. It reinforced Chicago’s mainstream aesthetic, the tone of which was essentially
decorous and decorative, expressed in an emphasis on the anatomically correct human
form and the harmonious color, pleasing subjects, and brilliant light effects of American
impressionism. The year after the Armory Show was seen in Chicago, a student publica¬
tion decried the “staved alien minds” of the modernists and championed the Midwest,
with Chicago as its capital, as the source of a characteristically “sincere” national art. 125 The

49

THE ART OF ARCHIBALD j. MOTLEY, JR.

Fig.30. William E. Scott. Blind Sister Mary,
c. / 930. Oil on canvas, 29.75 x 24 in.

(75.6 x 61 cm). Photograph by Frank Steward.
Art & Artifacts Division, Schomburg Center for
Research in Black Culture, The New York Public
Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.

institution’s relative conservatism may be measured by the impact of
George Bellows, whose brief visit in 1919 brought the just-graduated
Motley back to the school. The Ashcan School, whose ideals Bellows
represented, had long since been overshadowed by the modernists
featured in the Armory Show. But Chicagoans admired his illustrational
style and the "rich unadulterated strain of good sound middle-western
Americanism” in his portrayals of modern life. 126 Motley’s own admira¬
tion for Bellows has already been noted, and he otherwise agreed
with the Art Institute’s conservatism. Representational art, if not stylistic
naturalism, was necessary to his populist artistic mission: “you can’t
start out with somebody who knows practically nothing about art and
start with modern art. . . . You’ve got to start out with that conserva¬
tive thing because every layman leads a very realistic life.” 127 Motley had
little use for the abstract modern art presented in the Armory Show,
and the event made little apparent impact on him. 128

The changes that the School of the Art Institute underwent in the
late teens, when Motley was a student there, are reflected in the
teachers he cited as the most influential in his artistic education. 129 Karl
A. Buehr (1866-1952), who taught nude and portrait painting, was
typical of the painters who dominated Chicago’s art scene into the
twenties, executing pleasantly colored, light-filled views of women in
interiors and leisure life out-of-doors (fig. 31). 130 Albert Krehbiel (1873-1945), Motley’s
instructor in drawing and composition, was best known for impressionist landscapes and
city views, as well as allegorical murals in the Beaux Arts tradition. 131 These teachers gave
Motley a solid technical foundation, and set him on the path toward portraiture, if not the
portrayal of urban realities. 132 Only John Norton (1876-1934) showed an interest in the
latter. His 1924 painting Light and Shadow (1924; Art Institute of Chicago), possibly a study
for a mural, shows an urban industrial landscape peopled with the working poor. 133

Motley found the school a congenial environment, where his teachers encouraged
him with no regard for race. 134 The school had also nurtured most of the other figures
who comprised Chicago’s tiny number of black artists. The short-lived landscape painter
William A. Harper (1873-1910) studied there at the turn of the century before departing
for Europe, where he worked with Henry O. Tanner. 135 William Edouard Scott
(1884-1964) also worked with Tanner in Paris after he received his diploma from the
school in 1908. Like Tanner, Scott gravitated toward European landscapes and images of
rural, southern black life; later, after a visit to Haiti in 1931, he painted a number of rather
sentimental character portraits of African-Americans (fig. 30). 06 A more permanent fixture
of Chicago’s art scene during Motley’s early years was William McKnight Farrow, the
artist who tried to dissuade Motley from exhibiting Syncopation in 1925. Farrow began his
studies at the school in 1908 but remained until 1917 three years after Motley’s arrival
there. 137 An accomplished etcher and watercolorist as well as painter, Farrow favored
romantic landscapes and still lifes; his illustrative style and romantic subjects were easily

MOTLEY’S CHICAGO CONTEXT

adapted to the greeting cards he designed and published. In contrast to Motley’s
embrace of modern black American life, Farrow subscribed to Alain Locke’s argument
that African art was the best source for the art of the New Negro, occasionally painting in
an ‘African’’ style that, like Fuller’s Ethiopia Awakening, drew on Egyptian motifs. 138

Another contemporary of Motley’s at the Art Institute was Charles Clarence
Dawson (1889-1981), who studied there from 1913 to 1917 A native of Georgia who
studied at New York’s Art Students’ League before moving to Chicago, Dawson’s ambi¬
tion was to do “for the Negroes what Millet did for the French peasants.” 139 His best-
known works are technically brilliant though conventional watercolor illustrations, proba¬
bly executed in the thirties, that bring sly humor as well as sympathy to the world of
black Americans at work and play (fig. 32). Several younger black artists, notably sculptor
Richmond Barthe (1901-89) (who studied briefly with Motley 140 ), illustrator and por¬
traitist Robert Savon Pious (1908-83), and painter Ellis Wilson (1900-77), began their
careers at Chicago’s premier art school before moving to New York.

Despite the Art Institute’s receptiveness to African-American talent, these artists
encountered considerable barriers in pursuing their careers in Chicago. This was particu¬
larly true in the years following the Great Migration, when the dramatic growth of
Chicago’s black population along with postwar competition for jobs increased racial ten¬
sions in the city. It was during this period that Motley found himself rejected for employ¬
ment as a commercial artist by a white firm in favor of another recent Art Institute gradu¬
ate who was far less accomplished but white. 141 The situation did not improve over the
years. In the mid-thirties, for instance, Charles White was denied admission to two com¬
mercial Chicago art schools that had already awarded him scholarships when the schools
realized that he was black. 142 The artistic fortunes of Motley and other black Chicago
artists took a further downturn in 1938, when Daniel Catton Rich, who was openly hos¬
tile to them, succeeded the sympathetic Robert Harshe at the Art Institute’s helm. 143

The experience of exclusion rather than a single artistic outlook gave Chicago’s
black artists an identity as a distinct group. In 1917 the city’s first exhibition of work by
black artists, at the Arts and Letters Society, a black arts club, featured such established
figures as Farrow, Harper, and Dawson as well as Motley, then still a student. 144 Five years
later the Chicago Art League, a black artists’ club, was founded at the Wabash Avenue
YMCA. 145 In addition to the League’s exhibitions, Chicago’s leading black artists found
exposure for their work in the Harmon Foundation’s influential traveling exhibitions,
which appeared annually from 1928 through 1933. 146 And in 1927, the black Chicago
Woman’s Club sponsored “Negro in Art Week," the highlight of which was an exhibition
of work by black artists, held jointly at the Art Institute and the club’s premises. 147 Motley,
as already noted, held aloof from such activities. He participated only reluctantly in the
activities of the Chicago Art League, and refused to exhibit in the “Negro in Art Week”
exhibition “because Negroes were putting out such poor work.” 148 Thus although Chicago
had a small community of black artists, Motley remained somewhat detached from it.

Motley’s closest friends during and immediately after his years at the Art Institute
were white artists, notably Josef Tomanek (I889-?) and William S. Schwartz

Fig. 31. Karl Buehr. Under the Parasol. Oil on
canvas, 35 x 27 in. (88.9 x 66.6 cm).
Fairweather Hardin Galleries.

Fig. 32. Charles Clarence Dawson. The Bill
Poster. Watercolor on paper, 35 x 27 in. (88.9
x 68.6 cm). The DuSable Museum of African
American History.

SI

THE ART OF ARCHIBALD J. MOTLEY, JR.

(1896-1977). 149 Both recent immigrants from Europe, they
were, in a sense, outsiders like Motley. Their work testifies to
the diversity of styles prevalent on the Chicago art scene in the
period. Tomanek’s painting, of which little survives, consisted of
academic figure pieces; conservative critics admired his soft pas¬
tel-colored images—’’like a soft piping on flutes”—as an anti¬
dote to the “insane asylum art” of the modernists. 150 While
Tomanek’s romantic fantasies of luscious seminudes in sunlight
could not have been farther from Motley’s lively Black Belt
views, he was nonetheless an important source of moral sup¬
port for Motley in the difficult early days of his career. 151 William
S. Schwartz, an accomplished singer as well as painter, muralist,
and printmaker, was a modernist who experimented with frag¬
mented forms and intense color. 152 In the twenties he painted a
series of abstract works he called “symphonic forms,” but in his
work of the next decade Schwartz created Chicago city scenes
and images that exalt rural life (fig. 33). His work in the thirties
reflects the powerful influence of the regionalist movement, an
artistic and literary reaction against the perceived elitism and
Fig. 33. William S. Schwartz. A Countryside, European orientation of modernism, fueled by depression-era nostalgia for life in

c. I 936. Oil on canvas. Hirschl & Adler America’s heartland.

Galleries, Inc., New York. Schwartz and Tomanek represent two radically different artistic approaches, whose

Chicago adherents engaged in a lively debate during the twenties. The traditionalists had
close ties with the school and annual exhibitions of the Art Institute and gathered at clubs
like the Palette and Chisel Academy. They painted portraits in the fluid, facile manner long
since perfected by John Singer Sargent and William Merritt Chase, and landscapes—typi¬
cally not of Chicago—in the impressionist mode. For portraitists like Louis Betts
(1873-1961), figure painters like Adam Emory Albright (1862-1957), and landscapists like
Frank C. Peyraud (1858-1948) the conventional union of Truth and Beauty was above
question; the function of art in modern life was to elevate taste, if not the human soul,
above the quotidian grittiness of urban reality. The group of aspiring modernists who
challenged their assumptions included several who had been contemporaries of Motley’s
at the Art Institute, like Anthony Angarola (1893-1929). From the cubist Rudolph
Weisenborn, to the expressionist Emil Armin (1883-1971), to Ramon Shiva
(1893-1963), who abstracted the urban landscape into a vision of intense color, these
artists worked in a variety of styles. Angarola brought a hard-edged realism to the imaging
of urban life, while Raymond Jonson (1891-1982) painted both fantastic landscapes of the
imagination and precise, iconic portraits. What they shared was a dedication to experi¬
mentation and self-expression in art, an openness to the new ideas stirring avant-garde
art circles like Alfred Stieglitz’s Gallery 291 in New York, as well as an impatience with the
rigid jury system governing the conventional exhibition venues.

In their rebellion against the traditional organization of the city’s artistic life,

52

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Chicago’s modernists created their own, mostly short-lived but
dynamic clubs. 153 Among them was the Chicago No-Jury
Society of Artists, founded in 1922 to provide an alternative
venue for artistic radicals whose works were rejected for the
Art Institute’s exhibitions. Despite his suspicion of radical mod¬
ernism, Motley joined the organization in 1926, exhibiting
Syncopation, and he was quickly asked to serve as the society’s
director. 154 He lent his support to the advocates of artistic free¬
dom again in 1935, when he contributed a recent self-portrait
(1933, cat. no. 31) to the Salon des Refuses at the Davis Store
Gallery, an exhibition organized in protest against the Thirty-
Ninth Annual Chicago and Vicinity show at the Art Institute.

The independent Motley perhaps shared the spirit of indi¬
vidualism that informed these endeavors more than he

approved of the results of some of its participants’ artistic experimentations. In 1918 he
had denounced Stanislaus Szukalski, the idol of Chicago’s artistic radicals, as an artist “who
knows absolutely nothing about painting,’’ 155 and late in life he condemned abstraction. 156
Although he was included in J. Z. Jacobson’s catalogue of Chicago modernists in 1933,
Motley remained wedded to the solid technical foundation instilled at the Art Institute,
and to its traditional ideal of art as a universal means of expression, of necessity objectively
representational. 157 Throughout this period of debate and upheaval in Chicago’s artistic life
Motley’s paintings were welcomed at both the Art Institute annual exhibitions and the
rebels’ shows. He maintained a delicate but workable balance between the traditional
and radical camps, finding stylistic and philosophic points of sympathy with each. This
position reflects the synthetic nature of Motley’s individual artistic vision, in which he rec¬
onciled his academic background and thoroughly modern subject matter.

Motley’s decision to portray modern black life was far more of a break with other
black artists, especially with Chicago’s conservative black painters like Harper, Scott, and
Farrow, than it was with Chicago art in general. His early aspiration to be a portraitist was
thoroughly in line with Chicago’s strong artistic tradition of figurative art, a tradition epito¬
mized in the work of his Art Institute teachers. Though often discouraged in their loftier
endeavors by a lack of patronage, the city’s painters and sculptors had always found a
market for portraiture. The portrait as a means of exploring the individual persona
attracted both Chicago’s artistic establishment and artists associated with modernism,
notably Weisenborn and Jonson. This Chicago tradition was a natural means for Motley
to legitimize black subjects in art.

In turning his art to the documentation of urban life in genre scenes, Motley allied
himself with current trends in local as well as national art. The portrayal of the city had
always been problematical for Chicago painters, with their conservative notions of
Beauty. 158 Not until the turn of the century did Chicago’s professional landscapists begin
to come to terms with the city as a subject for artistic treatment, and then painters like
Alson Skinner Clark (1876-1949) and George Demont Otis (1879-1962) framed it in a

Fig. 34. Karl Buehr’s Art Institute class, 1917.
Motley stands in the back row, second from left,
behind Buehr. Collection of Archie Motley and
Valerie Gerrard Browne.

53

THE ART OF ARCHIBALD j. MOTLEY, JR.

romantic haze of soft impressionist color. In the twenties and thirties, however, a number
of Chicago’s progressive artists brought a more up-to-date vision to the portrayal of the
modern metropolis. While artists like Jean Crawford Adams (1890-1971) and William S.
Schwartz abstracted and redefined the material reality and physical energy of the built
environment, others focused on the everyday human tragicomedy. Motley was in good
company as he turned to Bronzeville’s dance halls and street corners for his subjects,
Gustaf Dalstrom (1893-1971), William Jacobs (1897-1953), Todros Geller
(1887/9-1949), Emil Armin (1883-1972), Frances Strain (1898-1962), and others
brought their individual visions to the sympathetic picturing of the lives of Chicago’s ordi¬
nary people. In particular, the work of Strain is reminiscent of Motley’s in both subject
matter and style. Her painting Cabaret appeared alongside his Syncopation in the 1926
No-Jury Society exhibition, while Crowd recalls Motley’s street scenes in its strong,
friezelike composition based on contrasting diagonals and its rushing figures pressed up
against the picture plane.

This direction in Chicago painting in the twenties and thirties testifies to the long-
lived influence of the Ashcan School, with its democratic celebration of the urban social
scene. 159 It also was a manifestation of the regionalist outlook, with its often xenophobic
nationalism and firm commitment to representationalism. Grant Wood’s stark American
Gothic (1930) and Doris Lee’s innocuous Thanksgiving (c. 1935), which both enraged and
delighted Chicago audiences, pictured “a God-fearing, white-picket-fence America”—
white, native born, and rural. 160 At the same time, Chicago artists were applying ethnic
influences to the interest in social realism of the era. Jacobs, Geller, and Armin, for
instance, drew on their Jewish roots, depicting the Maxwell Street enclave or working in
a style influenced by the naivete of folk art. Modern Mexican art also exerted a powerful
influence in Chicago. Although the great Mexican muralists Rivera, Orozco, and Siqueiros
did not bring their talents to Chicago as they had to New York and other United States
cities, the Pan-American Union’s extensive touring exhibition surveying Mexican visual
arts sparked great enthusiasm when it arrived at the Art Institute in 1932. 161 Chicago
artists such as Laura Van Pappelendam (d. 1974) and Mitchell Siporin (1910-1976) were
already responding to the Mexican influence. 162 Although Mexican social realist painting’s
relative humorlessness contrasts with Motley’s general outlook, its sculptural, volumetric
rendering of forms, if not its heroization of the underclass, may have inspired Motley’s
work in the thirties. He admired the Mexican artist Miguel Covarrubias, an illustrator of
Harlem Renaissance books and periodicals, and later briefly worked in Mexico. 163

During the thirties, in this environment of eclecticism and social consciousness, a
new generation of black artists emerged in Chicago. In an article in the black magazine
Opportunity in 1940 writer Willard Motley, the artist’s nephew, surveyed their struggles
for subsistence, inspiration, and recognition in “garages and top floor tenement house
studios.” 164 They included Charles Davis (1912-?), Bernard Goss (1913-1966), Eldzier
Cortor (b. 1915), Charles White (1918-79), Ramon Gabriel, Charles Sebree (1914-85),
William Carter (b. 1909), Henry Avery (1906-?), and Walter Ellison (1900-?), among
others. Many did not remain in Chicago but began their careers in the city. Motley and

54

MOTLEY’S CHICAGO CONTEXT

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other black artists of his generation had paved the way for
them in pioneering art both by and about blacks. But the
depression and the social consciousness of the era shaped a
new sense of mission for the black artist, who now sought to
express the inner soul of his people with reference to their
historical and contemporary struggles, failures, and triumphs.

Though generally figurative and social in content, black art of
the thirties ranged widely in style, from Cortor’s gracefully
ponderous sculptural forms to White’s sinuous, graphic sur¬
faces (fig. 35). The new generation’s inevitable inclination
toward stylistic realism coincided with the reaction against
modernism and abstraction, while the temper of the times
made the African-American a sympathetic subject in the art of
such regionalist masters as Thomas Hart Benton
(1889-1975), John Steuart Curry (1897-1946), and Reginald
Marsh (1898-1954). 165

Despite increasing recognition of black artistic talent in
the thirties and forties, black artists faced considerable barriers. A series of important pub¬
lications and exhibitions, including ‘Art of the American Negro, 1851-1940” held at the
Art Institute in 1940, drew attention to the achievements of black artists, but few com¬
mercial galleries would give them exposure. 166 Thanks to the presence of such sympa¬
thetic teachers as Kathleen Blackshear (1897-1988), Chicago’s School of the Art Institute
offered a tolerant environment where young and old, conservative and progressive tal¬
ents could mingle, but most black artists could not afford to attend. African-Americans
found themselves on the front line in the economic privations and social dislocation of
the depression. Black artists supported themselves on the fringes of the economy with
menial jobs, and only the federal art projects of the New Deal gave some a chance to
pursue their art at least part-time. 167

These trying conditions gave birth to the Arts and Crafts Guild, an informal group
clustered about the inspiring presence of painter and intellectual George Neal
(1906-38). 168 Carter, White, and Cortor, along with Margaret Taylor Goss Burroughs (b.
1917), Davis, and Joe Kersey (1908-?), are among the distinguished artists who credited
Neal with encouraging their early efforts. Burroughs recalled that Neal, a student at the
Art Institute, would pass along what he had learned there to those who could not afford
to attend, in adult education classes and at informal gatherings in his coach house studio
at Michigan Avenue and Thirty-third Street. 169 A fire destroyed the contents of Neal’s stu¬
dio two years before his premature death, and little of his work suwives. But Locke
attributed to Neal the “emancipation of the young Negro artist from academic technics
[sic] and conservatism, and from the traditional sentimental modes of the Negro
subject.” 170 The talent Neal nurtured went on to make an important contribution to the
New Deal art programs operating in Illinois.

Chicago was regional headquarters of the various federal building and improvement

Fig. 35. Charles White. Fatigue, / 940. Oil on
canvas. From James A. Porter, Modern Negro
Art. (New York: Arno Press, 1969).

THE ART OF ARCHIBALD j. MOTLEY, JR.

projects known collectively as the Works Progress Administration (WPA), and dominated
its arts projects in the state. 171 Over seven hundred Illinois artists participated, including
many of Chicago’s most important artists of the era. The art projects, which the federal
government sponsored from 1935 to 1943, supported sculpture, easel painting, print¬
making and graphic design, and crafts, in addition to the WPAs best-known products:
murals created to decorate public buildings. The ‘American Scene” was the required sub¬
ject of the majority of the artwork commissioned by the WPA, which encouraged the
production of art that was representational and accessible to all. 172 To this end the pro¬
grams also promoted art instruction and sponsored art exhibitions, notably the Art
Institute’s ‘Art for the Public” show in 1938.

Nearly all of Chicago’s serious artists were involved in some aspect of the WPA art
projects. The program provided more than just a paying opportunity to pursue creative
work. It came close to realizing the era’s populist ideal, charging artists with the mission
of addressing issues of social justice while simultaneously bringing art down from its elitist
pedestal and to the people in their post offices, courthouses, schools, and community
centers. The artists worked cooperatively, in a spirit of fellowship that lingered long after
their products had been forgotten or destroyed. 173

The WPA was just one arena for the democratic spirit of Chicago’s progressive
artistic community in the thirties and forties. Organizations such as Artists’ Equity Society
of America and the Artists’ Union worked to give artists the status, benefits, and occupa¬
tional solidarity that labor unions were providing for workers in conventional trades. The
No-Jury movement continued, finding a complement in the outdoor art fairs that blos¬
somed in Grant Park in the early thirties. During the second such fair, for instance, the

Fig. 36. Motley (back row, holding umbrella)
and others at a gathering in what may be Josef
Tomaneck's studio, 1921. Collection of Archie
Motley and Valerie Gerrard Browne.

56

MOTLEY’S CHICAGO CONTEXT

young artist Gertrude Abercrombie met “all kinds of people, classes, colors, creeds,
everything. . .which I hadn’t known before.” 174 Some of the artists she met there and
through her work for the WPA became part of the lively circle of artists, writers, and jazz
musicians that gathered in her Hyde Park home in the forties and fifties. The group
included Motley, Charles Sebree, painters Tom Kempf (I895-?) and Karl Priebe, as well
as author Thornton Wilder, musician Dizzy Gillespie, and singer Sarah Vaughan.
Abercrombie was an eccentric figure whose primitive-symbolist paintings may have been
an inspiration for the slightly surreal quality in some of Motley’s late works, such as After
Revelry, Meditation (c. I960, checklist no. 72).

At first, African-Americans were not welcomed into the federal art projects, partly
because of the prejudices of the Illinois Art Project’s first director, Increase Robinson. 175
Motley was admitted to the program as early as 1935, perhaps in recognition of his
established place in Chicago’s art scene. But painter William Carter, a younger artist, had
a more typical experience: he was assigned to work in a mattress factory and at the con¬
struction site of a park swimming pool, among other jobs, while awaiting a position in the
easel division. 176 Eventually, however, the WPA provided employment to many among
Chicago’s black art community: Avery, Carter, Cortor, Davis, Ellison, Gabriel, Goss, Fred
Hollingsworth, Kersey, Frank Neal (b. 1915), Gordon Parks (b. 1912), Sebree, and White,
as well as Motley. 177 Most of the painters were employed in the easel division, but some,
like Motley, Avery, and White, also produced murals. The WPA gave these artists oppor¬
tunities to compete for mural commissions, produce easel paintings in cooperative pro¬
ject studios and show their work in the WPAs Chicago art gallery. African-Americans
were encouraged to participate in the Artists’ Union, formed in 1936 to mediate
between the arts projects and their employees. 178

Much of the art produced under the New Deal programs soon disappeared, but
the WPAs most important contribution to the black art community in Chicago remains.
Two years after the loss of George Neal’s galvanizing presence, the South Side
Community Art Center was founded as part of the WPAs community art center initiative
to bring art to neighborhoods. 179 The WPA provided seed money, but it was mainly funds
collected from throughout Chicago’s black community that purchased the abandoned
Comiskey mansion at Thirty-eighth Street and Michigan Avenue and transformed it into
an art center complete with auditorium, workshops, classrooms, and gallery. Further
support was raised at a gala dedication attended by Eleanor Roosevelt, who proclaimed
the center’s mission to “create a democracy in art.” 180 Its first director, Peter Pollack, had
operated the Chicago Artists Group, one of the very few galleries to show the work of
black artists during the thirties. 181 Under Pollack’s direction, the center not only provided
a place where a diverse collection of black artists met each other and their community
through classes, demonstrations, and exhibitions, but where black and white artists min¬
gled as well. Painters Morris Topchevsky (1899-1947), Harold Hayden (b. 1909), and
Aaron Bohrod (b. 1907), and sculptor Si Gordon (1908-1962) crossed paths with Motley
and Farrow and the younger generation: Cortor, White, Parks, and Hughie Lee-Smith (b.
I9I5). 182 Sculptor Marion Perkins (1908-61) received his first art instruction at the center,

57

THE ART OF ARCHIBALD J. MOTLEY, JR.

painter Vernon Winslow first exhibited there, and Burroughs, later founder of Chicago’s
DuSable Museum of African American History, was first introduced to black history by
Gordon, whom she met at the center . 183 With little exaggeration, Burroughs recalled that
“any black artist or writer who amounted to anything passed through the doors of this art
center .” 184

Many passed through the center on their way out of Chicago altogether, but the
center symbolizes the key developments in the tumultuous half-century that witnessed
and shaped Motley’s maturation. That period saw the development of Chicago’s Black
Belt from a small, invisible enclave to a diverse and lively community that meshed mod¬
ern urbanism with southern roots to become perhaps the nation’s quintessential black
metropolis. It saw the evolution of Chicago’s art scene from genteel conservatism to
dynamic eclecticism, both receptive to new artistic ideas and capable of making its own
contribution to them. Where its art life and its black community came together, Chicago
made notable contributions, nurturing several generations of black America’s most
important talent.

Both personally and artistically, Motley was one of his hometown’s most loyal native
sons. His refusal to follow the usual eastward flow of Chicago’s creative talent undoubt¬
edly played a part in his own and subsequent generations’ failure fully to appreciate the
significance of his contribution to the New Negro Movement as a national phenomenon.
Ironically, however, Chicago itself was a major source for Motley’s achievement. His
stylistic outlook drew on the city’s artistic traditions, while his early career was nurtured
by the sympathetic environment he found both at the school and exhibitions of the Art
Institute and among Chicago’s progressive art circles. More directly, Chicago gave Motley
his inspiration and the subject matter through which he fulfilled his original artistic vision.
In the Black Belt’s intense urbanism, its highly textured character as America’s essential
modern black community, and its prominence as a center for innovative popular music,
Motley found the occasion for the breakthrough he engineered in the portrayal of the
African-American, and the inspiration for the individual stylistic means by which to realize
that breakthrough.

Through his art Motley both witnessed and shaped the evolution of black visual self-
expression from academic realism to a stylistic diversity inspired equally by the textures of
black life and culture and the provocative variety of modern art. Synthesizing artistic pro¬
fessionalism and the search for racial self-identity, Motley gave vision to the central aspira¬
tions of twentieth-century black culture. But he also carved out for himself a place in
American art in general. He made the African-American the subject of a fine art with an
appeal beyond the black community, and shaped a professional life that realized his ideal
of artistic quality as transcending racial identity and racial barriers. Drawing on a range of
influences and traditions, Motley reflected in his art the diversity, as well as some of the
dilemmas, of twentieth-century representational art.

58

MOTLEY’S CHICAGO CONTEXT

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NOTES

|. Artist statement by Motley in J. Z. Jacobson, Art of
Today: Chicago 1933 (Chicago: L. M. Stein, 1932), 93.

2. The specific boundaries of the Black Belt are dis¬
cussed below. The term Black Belt was established by
1922, when it is used in Chicago Commission on Race
Relations, The Negro in Chicago: A Study of Race
Relations and a Race Riot (Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1922). Its residents also referred to the
area as Bronzeville, a term that first appeared in a black
newspaper in 1930 (St. Clair Drake and Horace R.
Cayton, black Metropolis: A Study of Negro Life in a
Northern City [New York: Harcourt, Brace and
Company, 1945], 383).

3. Motley encountered racial hostility in several inci¬
dents as a child, as a student at the Art Institute of
Chicago, in Paris, and in his search for professional
employment. Autobiography" by Archibald J. Motley,

Jr., n.d., Archibald J. Motley, Jr. Papers, Archives and
Manuscripts Collection, Chicago Historical Society, 3.
Interview with Archibald J. Motley, Jr., by Dennis Barrie,
January 23, 1978, Archibald J. Motley, Jr. Papers,

Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution,
Washington D.C.; copy of transcript in Archibald J.
Motley, Jr. Papers, Archives and Manuscripts Collection,
Chicago Historical Society, [20-21, 52-53]. Elaine
Woodall, Archibald J. Motley, Jr.: American Artist of the
Afro-American People, 1891-1928" (Master’s thesis,
Pennsylvania State University, 1977), 27-29.

4. Jacobson, Art of Today, 93; see also Motley,
Autobiography, 9, and Barrie, Interview, [32-4].

5. Barrie, Interview, [26].

6. Barrie, Interview, [9].

7 Barrie, Interview, [33-34].

8. The tradition has been amply surveyed in Guy
McElroy, Facing History: The Black Image in American Art
1710-1941 (San Francisco: Bedford Arts Publishers,
1990). This assessment of Motley’s achievement was
first articulated by Elaine Woodall in her master’s thesis,
already cited.

9- On Tanner see Dewey E Mosby et al, Henry Ossawa

Tanner (exh. cat.) (Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of
Art, 1991).

10. Many of the artists for whom he recorded his admi¬
ration were mainly past masters, who included Frans
Hals, Delacroix, and David. Jacobson, Art of Today, 93.

11. Leila Mechlin, "Notes of Art and Artists," The Sunday
Star, May 19, 1929, sec. 2, p. 4, quoted in Gary A.
Reynolds and Beryl J. Wright, Against the Odds: African-
American Artists and the Harmon Foundation (exh. cat.)
(Newark, NJ: The Newark Museum, 1989), III, and
figs. 62 and 63.

12. Woodall, Archibald J. Motley, Jr.,” 31-35. Late in life
he remarked that “There are no modern painters, with
the exception possibly of George Bellows—none of
them have ever influenced me” (Barrie, Interview, [51]).
Elsewhere, however, Motley noted his admiration for
two other painters associated with the Ash Can School,
John Sloan and Randall Davey, as well as the Mexican
artist Miguel Covarrubias. Davey taught at the Art
Institute in the early twenties and Sloan’s work was
exhibited frequently at the Art Institute. Barrie, Inter¬
view, [22]; Wllard Motley, Biography of Archibald
Motley, n.d., Archibald J. Motley, Jr. Papers, Archives
and Manuscripts Collection, Chicago Historical
Society, 2.

13. Woodall, Archibald J. Motley, Jr.,’’ 34-35; Alain
Locke, Negro Art: Past and Present (Washington, D.C.:
Associates in Negro Folk Education, 1936; reprint ed.,
New York: Arno Press, 1969), quoted in Woodall,
Archibald J. Motley, Jr.,” 34-35. On Adams see
McElroy, Facing History, 113.

14. Motley, Autobiography, n.p.

15. Motley, Autobiography, 9; Motley, "The Negro in
Art," n.d. Personal Collection of Archie Motley: copy in
Archibald J. Motley, Jr. Papers, Archives and Manuscript
Collection, Chicago Historical Society.

16. On Farrow see Reynolds and Wright, Against the
Odds, 183-87

17 Motley, Autobiography, n.p.; Barrie, Interview, [32].

18. Barrie, Interview, [II],

19. Motley, “The Negro in Art," Chicago Defender, July
13, 1918.

20. Motley’s artist statement in Jacobson, Art of Today,
93. Motley’s conviction of the primacy of technique is
most evident in his “How I Solve My Painting
Problems,” 1947 Harmon Foundation Papers, Library of
Congress, Washington, D.C.; copy in Archibald J.

Motley, Jr. Papers, Archives and Manuscripts Collection,
Chicago Historical Society.

21. See for instance Motley, “The Negro in Art," 6. The
specific subjects of Motley’s criticisms are unidentified.

22. Motley, Autobiography, n.p. Motley was reluctant to
join the Chicago Art League of the Wabash Avenue
YMCA, and he refused to exhibit in the “Negro in Art
Week" exhibition sponsored by the Chicago Woman's
Club in 1927 He did, however, participate in white
organizations, including the No-Jury Society, and the
Illinois Academy of Fine Arts. Woodall, Archibald J.
Motley,Jr.,” Ill, 112-15.

23. Woodall, Archibald J. Motley, Jr.,” 103-104, 108-11.
Farrow was influential as president of the Chicago Art
League as well as art critic for the Chicago Defender.

24. Motley, Autobiography, 9.

25. Woodall, Archibald J. Motley, Jr.,’’ 103.

26. The dating of the New Negro Movement is itself
problematical. John S. Wright suggests that it may have
begun as early as 1895, when, he notes, “editorials in
African-American newspapers had appealed to their
readership to begin building a new group personality, a
new civilization, and a correspondingly new flowering of
art" (A Scintillating Send-Off For Falling Stars: The Black
Renaissance Reconsidered," A Stronger Soul Within a
Finer Frame: Portraying African-Americans in the Black
Renaissance [exh. cat.] [Minneapolis: University Art
Museum, University of Minnesota, 1990], 15). Wright
provides a sensitive discussion of the New Negro
Movement as a national phenomenon.

27 David Driskell, 7wo Centuries of Black American Art
(exh. cat.) (Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum
of Art, 1976), 59.

28. Alain D. Locke, The New Negro ( 1925: reprint ed.
New York: Atheneum, 1980), [xv].

29. These issues continued to concern black artists and

59

THE ART OF ARCHIBALD J. MOTLEY, JR

intellectuals into the thirties. For a discussion of their
impact in the context of the Harmon Foundation's activ¬
ities, for instance, see Clement Alexander Price, “In
Search of a People’s Spirit: The Harmon Foundation
and American Interest in Afro-American Artists,” in
Reynolds and Wright, Against the Odds, 71-87

30. The Harlem Renaissance's specific legacy in the
visual arts is examined in Since the Harlem Renaissance:
50 Years of Afro-American Art (exh. cat.) (Lewisburg, PA:
The Center Gallery of Bucknell University, 1985).

31. For a profile of the Harlem Renaissance’s movers
and shakers, see David Levering Lewis, “Harlem My
Home” in Mary Schmidt Campbell, et al, Harlem
Renaissance: Art of black. America (exh. cat.) (New York:
The Studio Museum in Harlem and Harry N. Abrams,
Inc., 1987), 57-103.

32. Mary Schmidt Campbell provides an overview of
the criticism of the Harlem Renaissance's achievements
in the visual arts in her introduction to Campbell, et al,
Harlem Renaissance, 38-55.

33. Romare Bearden, “The Negro Artist and Modern
Art,” Opportunity (1934), quoted in Campbell et al,
Harlem Renaissance, 49. The latter contains fine sum¬
maries on the life and art of all four artists. On Johnson
see also Richard J. Powell, William H. Johnson (exh. cat.)
(Washington, D.C.: National Museum of American Art,
1991).

34. For instance, Ethiopia Awakening (1914; The
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture), the
most important work by Fuller (who belongs to an ear¬
lier generation than Motley and the others) is an ideal¬
ized historical subject, while a pair of plaster genre
pieces, Lazy Bones in the Shade and Lazy Bones in the
Sun (1937; Collection of Solomon R. Fuller, Bourne,
MA) engages the racist tradition of the shiftless darky.

35. Hayden incorporated African sculpture and fabrics
into his still-life painting Fetiche et Fleurs (1926;
Collection of Mrs. Miriam Hayden), and in some early
watercolors portrayed African-Americans with a fresh¬
ness comparable to Motley’s work (see Campbell et al,

Harlem Renaissance, pis. II, 12), but these were not as
typical of his work in the twenties as the European land¬
scapes he exhibited with the Harmon Foundation
beginning in 1928. Johnson, academically trained,
moved from academic realism to emulation of
European masters of post-impressionism and expres¬
sionism before embracing what he termed primitivism
in style and subjects that ranged from everyday black life
to Biblical stories reinterpreted with black figures.

36. Barrie, Interview, [6-7].

37 Barrie, Interview, [34, 44].

38. Jontyle Theresa Robinson, 'Archibald John Motley,
Jr.: A Notable Anniversary for a Pioneer," in Three
Masters: Eldzier Cortor, Hughie Lee-Smith, Archibald John
Motley, Jr. (exh. cat.) (New York: Kenkeleba Gallery,
1988), 42-43.

39. Barrie, Interview, [42].

40. Barrie, Interview, [42].

41. Barrie, Interview, [43, 49].

42. Barrie, Interview, [34].

43. Barrie, Interview, [49].

44. Barrie, Interview, [49, 52].

45. Wright, A Stronger Soul, 26.

46. Wright, A Stronger Soul, 29.

47 E. Franklin Frazier, “Chicago: A Cross-Section of
Negro Life," Opportunity 7 (March 1929), 73.

48. Carroll Binder, Chicago and the New Negro: Studies
in a Great Community's Changing Race Relations
(Chicago: Chicago Daily News, 1927), 22; see also
Frazier, “Chicago: A Cross-Section," 70-73.

49. Frazier, "Chicago: A Cross-Section,” 70.

50. James Weldon Johnson quoted in Wright, A
Stronger Soul, 29. Drake and Cayton’s Black Metropolis
(1945) drew heavily on research undertaken at the
University of Chicago (Introduction, xvii-xix).

51. Locke, “The Legacy of the Ancestral Arts,” in New
Negro, 254-267 Motley produced his African-inspired
paintings for his one-man exhibition, at the direct sug¬
gestion of the New Gallery’s president. Letter from
George S. Heilman to Motley, New York, May 9, 1927
Archibald J. Motley, Jr. Papers, Archives and Manuscripts

Collection, Chicago Historical Society: Barrie,
Interview, [35].

52. Motley, Autobiography, 9.

53. Allan H. Spear, Black Chicago: The Making of a
Negro Ghetto 1890-1920 (Chicago: The University of
Chicago Press, 1967), 12, Table I.

54. Spear, Black Chicago, II, Table 2.

55. Spear, Black Chicago, II, Table 2.

56. James R. Grossman, Land of Hope: Chicago, Black
Southerners, and the Great Migration (Chicago: The
University of Chicago Press, 1989), 32-33, 148-149.

57 Chicago served as a transit point for many southern
blacks who settled in other Northern industrial cities,
like Detroit. CCRR, The Negro in Chicago, 79-80.

58. Grossman, Land of Hope, 96-97 Such networks
helped many migrants face barriers to their migration
erected by Southern planters and mill operators resist¬
ing the rapid hemorrhaging of their cheap labor supply.
Southern employers intimidated migrants and erected
barriers to the operation of labor agents, while spread¬
ing word of Chicago’s dangerously harsh climate (see
for instance CCRR, Negro in Chicago, 88).

59. Motley, Autobiography, I.

60. CCRR, 107

61. Motley, Autobiography, 2. Motley wrote that he
grew up in Englewood in an atmosphere of "no preju¬
dice, no hatred,” but he also recalled hostile racial inci¬
dents (Autobiography, 3-4).

62. Spear, Black Chicago, 23-24.

63. CCRR, Negro in Chicago, 122-29; Spear, Black
Chicago, 211.

64. Grossman, Land of Hope, 127-28.

65. Quoted in CCRR, Negro in Chicago, 99.

66. Drake and Cayton, Black Metropolis, 107

67 Similar outbreaks occurred in other cities where
returning sevicemen competed with African-Americans
for jobs. Chicago’s riot prompted the formation of the
Chicago Commission on Race Relations. Its still invalu¬
able study, The Negro in Chicago, opens with a detailed
account of the riot. The standard history of the riot
remains Wiliam Tuttle, Race Riot: Chicago in the Red

60

MOTLEY’S CHICAGO CONTEXT

Summer of 1919 (New York: Atheneum, 1970).

68. On Chicago’s black elites old and new, see Spear,
Black Chicago, chs. 3 and 4.

69. Grossman, Land of Hope, 129-30; Spear, 8 lack
Chicago, 86-88.

70. Grossman , Land of Hope, 139-40, 144-53.

71. Urban League statement in Defender, Nov. 23,

1918, quoted in Grossman, Land of Hope, 144.

72. Quoted in Grossman, Land of Hope, 117

73. Drake and Cayton, Black Metropolis, 521.

74. Drake and Cayton, Black Metropolis, 495, 499-501

75. Drake and Cayton, Black Metropolis, 497-98. The
artist’s mother is said to have cautioned him against
marrying a "black," that is, dark-skinned, girl (Motley
quoted in Woodall, ‘Archibald J. Motley, Jr.,” 12).

76. Barrie, Interview, [20].

77 Barrie, Interview, [26].

78. Jacobson, Art of Today, 93. This point was likewise
reflected in Motley’s use of language. Art critic Harold
Haydon wrote: “He is old-fashioned enough to prefer
‘colored’ to ‘black,’ and modern enough to point out
that 'colored' takes in many more people than are
black" (Chicago Sun Times, Aug. 29, 1971, sec. 5, p. 3).

79. A Black Belt doctor, for instance, noted that a num¬
ber of his fraternity brothers became hotel waiters and
Pullman porters upon graduation, for lack of opportuni¬
ty. Drake and Cayton, Black Metropolis, 515-16.

80. Otis Dudley Duncan and Beverly Duncan, The
Negro Population of Chicago: A Study of Residential
Succession (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press,
1957), 91; Drake and Cayton, Black Metropolis, 515-16.

81. Spear, Black Chicago, 181-86.

82. Grossman, Land of Hope, 182.

83. Spear, Black Chicago, 156-57

84. Spear, Black Chicago, 34.

85. The Chicago Commission on Race Relations noted
that the level of employment declined for many black
southerners when they came North; one tinsmith, for
instance, worked as a waiter when he first arrived in
Chicago, and was a laborer a year later. CCRR, Negro
in Chicago, 95.

86. Spear, Black Chicago, 36-40.

87 Spear, Black Chicago, 159-66; Grossman, Land of
Hope, 182.

88. CCCR, Negro in Chicago, 378-79; Drake and
Cayton, Black Metropolis, 242-52.

89. Grossman, Land of Hope, 127, 196.

90. Frazier, “Chicago: A Cross-Section,” 72.

91. Spear, Black Chicago, 187-89.

92. Drake and Cayton, Black Metropolis, 86-88.

93. Spear, Black Chicago, 177; CCRR, Negro in Chicago,
143.

94. Spear, Black Chicago, 175-77

95. Frazier, “Chicago: A Cross-Section,” 71.

96. Langston Hughes, The Big Sea: An Autobiography
(New York, 1945), quoted in Grossman, Land of Hope,
117

97 On vice industries in the Black Belt see Thomas
Philpott, The Slum and the Ghetto: Neighborhood
Deterioration and Middle-Class Reform, Chicago
1880-1930 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1978).

98. Drake and Cayton, Black Metropolis, 486-87

99. Drake and Cayton, Black Metropolis, 385-87

100. Grossman, Land of Hope, 131-32.

101. See Chadwick Hansen, “Social Influences on Jazz
Style,” American Quarterly 12 (Spring I960), 493-507;
on the fascinating history of jazz in Chicago in general
see Dempsey J. Travis, An Autobiography of Black Jazz
(Chicago: Urban Research Institute, 1983), and Leroy
Ostransky, Jazz City: The Impact of Our Cities on the
Development of Jazz (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-
Hall, Inc., 1978).

102. See Mike Rowe, Chicago Blues: The City & the
Music (New York: Da Capo Press, 1975).

103. As David Levering Lewis points out, “much of its
[Harlem’s] music was tested in and imported from
Chicago." "The Politics of Art: The New Negro,
1920-1935," Prospectus: An Annual of American Cultural
Studies ( 1977), 237

104. Wright, A Stronger Soul, 29.

105. Motley, "The Negro in Art," 2; Barrie, Interview,

pi].

106. Motley, Autobiography, 8-9. In contrast, it was
whites, like his high school art teacher, Frank W.

Gunsaulas of the Armour Institute, and Harsche who
early recognized and encouraged Motley’s ambition
and talent, and sought opportunities for him to train and
exhibit.

107 Barrie, Interview, [31]. See also Motley,
Autobiography, 9, and Motley, "The Negro in Art.”

108. The most comprehensive survey of art in Chicago
remains Esther Sparks, ‘A Biographical Dictionary of
Painters and Sculptors in Illinois 1808-1945" (PhD dis¬
sertation, Northwestern University, 1971), Introductory
Essay, I: I -232. See also William H. Gerdts, Art Across
America: Two Centuries of Regional Painting 1710-1920
(New York: Abbeville Press, 1990). The publication of
The Old Guard and the Avant-Garde: Modernism in
Chicago, 1910-1940, Sue Ann Prince, ed. (Chicago:
The University of Chicago Press, 1990) represents a
major advance in the critical examination of Chicago’s
art history.

109. Art publishing in late nineteenth- and early twenti¬
eth-century Chicago has been extensively researched
by William H. Gerdts. For a summary of this and of
Chicago’s art clubs see his Art Across America, v. 2,
293-94, 302-303.

110. On the history of the Art Institute, see Helen
Lefkowitz Horowitz, Culture and the City: Cultural
Philanthropy in Chicago from the 1880s to 1917
(Lexington: The University of Kentucky Press, 1976),
and Horowitz, "The Art Institute of Chicago: The First
Forty Years,” Chicago History 8 (Spring 1979), 2-15.

111. The Society’s history is detailed in Louise Dunn
Yochim, Role and Impact: The Chicago Society of Artists
(Chicago: The Chicago Society of Artists, 1979).

112. On Chicago’s art society in the late nineteenth cen¬
tury see Timothy J. Garvey, Public Sculptor: Lorado Taft
and the Beautification of Chicago (Urbana, IL: University
of Illinois Press, 1988), ch. 3.

113. On Chicago’s private collectors see Patricia Erens,
Mosterworks: Famous Chicagoans and Their Paintings
(Chicago: The Chicago Review Press, 1979).

114. The Art Institute inaugurated its series of annual
exhibitions of American art in 1888 and its annual exhi-

61

THE ART OF ARCHIBALD J. MOTLEY, JR.

bitions of art by artists of Chicago and vicinity in 1897 In
1910 the Friends of American Art was established to
purchase works by living American artists for the
museum.

115. See Stefan Germer, “Traditions and Trends: Taste
Patterns in Chicago Collecting," in Prince, ed., Old
Guard, ch. 10.

116. The failure of Chicagoans to patronize hometown
artists and the tendency of the latter to move to New
York remained concerns of Chicago’s art community.
See for instance Philip J. Huth, “Community
Encouragement—A Plea to the Patron," The Art Student
(Jan. 1916), 85-87, and Neil Harris, "The Chicago
Setting,” in Prince, ed., Old Guard, 7-14.

117. Harris, “The Chicago Setting,” in Prince, ed., Old
Guard, 4-7

118. George W. Eggers, “Chicago as an Art Center.
Introduction," Art and Archaeology 12:3-4 (Sept./Oct.
1921), 100.

119. On the history of the School see Peter C. Marzio,
‘A Museum and a School: An Uneasy But Creative
Union,” Chicago History 8 (Spring 1979), 20-23,

44-52, and Charlotte Moser, ‘“In the Highest
Efficiency’: Art Training at the School of the Art Institute
of Chicago” in Prince, ed., Old Guard, 193-208.

120. School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Circular of
Instruction for 1910-1911, 9.

121. Although Vanderpoel died in 1911, three years
before Motley entered the School, his outlook contin¬
ued to influence the School’s conservative course of
instruction. See Moser, ‘“In the Highest Efficiency’,” in
Prince, ed., Old Guard, 196-98.

122. On the Chicago showing of the Armory Show see
Milton W. Brown, The Story of the Armory Show (New
York; Abbeville Press, 1988), ch. 10, and Richard R.
Brettell and Sue Ann Prince, "From the Armory Show
to the Century of Progress: the Art Institute Assimilates
Modernism" in Prince, ed., Old Guard, 209-14.

123. Moser, “‘In the Highest Efficiency’,” in Prince, ed.,
Old Guard, 201.

124. Susan Weininger, "Modernism and Chicago Art,

62

1910-1940," in Prince, ed., Old Guard, 64-66. See also
"Stanislaus Szukalski’s Lost Tune,” Chicago History 20
(Spring and Summer 1991), 39-55.

125. L. W. H., "North of the River,” The Art Student,
Published by the Students of the Art Institute of Chicago,
Christmas 1915, 44; Dr. Albrecht Montgalas, ‘American
National Art and the American Test,” The Art Student,
Christmas 1915, 45-46.

126. Two other members of the Ashcan School, Leon
Kroll and Randall Davey, taught at the School in the
early twenties. See Moser, '“In the Highest Efficiency’,”
in Prince, ed., Old Guard, 202-204.

127 Barrie, Interview, [33].

128. Late in life he claimed to have no recollection of
the exhibition. Barrie, Interview, [22-23].

129. Motley, Autobiography, 7-8; Woodall, ‘Archibald J.
Motley, Jr.," 16-18.

130. On Buehr see Gerdts, Art Across America, 2:316.

131. On Krehbiel see Gerdts, Art Across America,
2:319-20.

132. The work of George Walcott, Motley's teacher for
color composition in oils, is little known, and he appar¬
ently never exhibited at the Art Institute. Motley names
Buehr, Krehbiel, and Walcott as his main teachers in his
Autobiography, but Buehr, Krehbiel, and John Norton
are mentioned in the biography for Motley in Jacobson,
Art of Today, 146-7

133. Information courtesy of Jim L. Zimmer, Assistant
Administrator of the Lockport Gallery, Illinois State
Museum, who is curating an exhibition of John Norton’s
work.

134. Motley, Autobiography, 7-8, 10.

135. On Harper see Florence Lewis Bentley, "William
A. Harper,” Voice of the Negro 3 (Feb. 1906), 118-22,
and Elsa Honig Fine, The Afro-American Artist: A Search
for Identity (New York: Holt, Rhinehart and Wnston,
Inc., 1973), 76-77

136. On Scott see Fine, Afro-American Artist, 78-80,
and Reynolds and Wright, Against the Odds, 255-58.

137 On Farrow see Reynolds and Wright, Against the
Odds, 182-87

138. Woodall, Archibald J. Motley, Jr.,” NO.

139. On Dawson see Reynolds and Wright, Against the
Odds, 172-74.

140. Woodall, Archibald J. Motley, Jr.,” 119.

141. Woodall, Archibald J. Motley, Jr.," 27-30.

142. James Porter and B. Horowitz, Images of Dignity:
The Drawings of Charles White (Los Angeles: Ward
Ritchie Press, 1967), 11. White later studied at the Art
Institute.

143. Woodall, Archibald J. Motley, Jr.," 46-47

144. Reynolds and Wright, Against the Odds, 17

145. Reynolds and Wright, Against the Odds, 17

146. Reynolds and Wright, Against the Odds, 284-88.
147 Modern Paintings and Sculpture (exh. cat.) (Chicago:
The Chicago Art Institute [sic], 1927).

148. Motley quoted in Woodall, Archibald J. Motley,
Jr.,” 113.

149. Barrie, Interview, [19-20].

150. Paul T Gilbert, “Exhibit in Fair at San Francisco
Under Fire,” Herald and Examiner, Aug. 13, 1939;
Eleanor Jewett, “Paintings at the Palette and Chisel,"
Chicago Tribune, Apr. 28, 1929. On Tomanek see
Sparks, "Dictionary," 2:637

151. Willard Motley, Biography, 3; Woodall, ‘Archibald J.
Motley, Jr.,’’ 67.

152. On Schwartz see Jacobson, Art of Today, 120-21,
151, and Manuel Chapman, William S. Schwartz
(Chicago: L. M. Stein, 1930).

153. See Paul Kruty, “Declarations of Independents:
Chicago’s Alternative Art Groups of the 1920s," in
Prince., ed., Old Guard, 71-94.

154. Woodall, Archibald J. Motley, Jr.," 114. During his
involvement with the organization, Motley was its only
black member.

155. Motley, “The Negro in Art,” Defender, July 13,
1918.

156. Barrie, Interview, [33-34].

157 See for instance Motley’s statement in Jacobson,
Art of Today, 93.

158. Harris, “The Chicago Setting," in Prince, ed., Old
Guard, 4-7

159. The work of Robert Henri, John Sloan, and
George Bellows could be seen at both establishment

MOTLEY’S CHICAGO CONTEXT

and independent venues, thanks in part to the contacts
between them and Strain and her husband, painter
Fred Biesel. Kruty, “Chicago’s Alternative Art Groups,”
in Prince, ed., Old Guard, 78, 83.

160. Barbara Rose, American Art Since 1900: A Critical
History (New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1967), 115.
Both paintings aroused the ire of the city’s art conserva¬
tives but won medals at Art Institute American Annual
shows and were purchased for the museum by the
Friends of American Art (Sparks, “Dictionary,"
Introductory Essay, 1:162-64). The Friends added to
these purchases another painting which has become a
hallmark of regionalism, Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks
(1942).

161. "Specimens of Mexican Artistic Genius Are Shown
at Chicago Art Institute,” Chicago Tribune, Jan. 3, 1932.
The Chicago showing may have been added as an
afterthought. The catalogue does not mention the Art
Institute among the exhibition’s venues, and gives the
tour’s dates as 1930-31. The Exposition of Mexican Art
(Bulletin of the Pan American Union, Oct. 1930)
(Washington, D.C.: The Pan American Union, 1930), I.

162. On Pappelendam see Jacobson, Art of Today, 130,
153; Sparks, "Dictionary,” 1:187; on Siporin see Sparks,
“Dictionary," 1:209-l0 and 2:609-10.

163. Motley met Covarrubias in New York in 1928,
when each was having a one-man exhibition (Willard
Motley, Biography, 2). Covarrubias had just published
his Negro Drawings (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1927),
a collection of his satirical caricatures of Harlem "types."
During the fifties, when Motley worked in Mexico, he
produced Another Mexican Baby (cat. no. 59), a mural¬
like work whose serious social theme and peasant pro¬
tagonists are reminiscent of the work of Diego Rivera.

164. Willard F Motley, "Negro Art in Chicago,”
Opportunity 18 (Jan. 1940), 19.

165. See McElroy, Facing History, xxii-iii, 114-15,

120-23, 125.

166. Likewise, the era saw the publication of the first
surveys of African-American artists, notably Alain
Locke s Negro Art, Past and Present (1936) and The
Negro in Art (1940), and James A. Porter’s Modern

Negro Art (m3).

167 Wllard Motley, “Negro Art in Chicago.”

168. Fine, Afro-American Artist, 170; Locke, Modern
Negro Art, 131-32.

169. Transcript of Interview with Margaret Taylor Goss
Burroughs, Archives of American Art, 1988, 22;
Transcript of Interview with Wiliam Carter, Archives of
American Art, 1988, 23.

170. Locke, Modern Negro Art, 131.

171. An exhaustive history of the various projects in
Illinois is contained in George J. Mavigliano and (Richard
A. Lawson, The Federal Art Project in Illinois 1935-1943
(Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press,
1990); see also After the Great Crash: New Deal Art in
Illinois (exh. cat.) (Springfield, IL: Illinois State Museum,
1983), and Sparks, “Dictionary," v. I, ch. 10.

172. Mavigliano and Lawson, Federal Art Project, 18-24.

173. Sparks, "Dictionary," 1:226.

174. Quoted in Susan Weininger, Gertrude Abercrombie
(exh. cat.) (Springfield, IL: Illinois State Museum, forth¬
coming).

175. Mavigliano and Lawson, Federal Art Project, 68.

176. Transcript of Interview with Wiliam Carter,
Archives of American Art, 1988, 25-28; see also
Transcript of Interview with Wiliam McBride, Archives
of American Art, 1988, 26-27

177 On black artists and the WPA see New
York/Chicago: WPA and the Black Artist (exh. cat.) (New
York: The Studio Museum in Harlem, 1976), and
Mavigliano and Lawson, Federal Art Projects, 67-69.

178. Mavigliano and Lawson, Federal Art Projects, 69.

179. The SSCAC is the only community art center of
several founded under the WPA that survives.

180. Quoted in Sparks, “Dictionary," 1:224. The open¬
ing and its accompanying exhibition were described by
Locke in “Chicago’s New Southside Art Center,”
Magazine of Art 34 (Aug.-Sept. 1941), 370-74. See
also Burroughs interview, 40-43.

181. Sparks, “Dictionary,” v. I, 224; Mavigliano and
Lawson, Federal Art Projects, 67-68; Burroughs inter¬
view, 40.

182. Carter interview, 24; Burroughs interview, 44-45.

183. Burroughs interview, 45.

184. Burroughs interview, 42-43.

Catalogue of the Exhibition

65

I

TheChef c. 1916-18
Oil on canvas, 39% x 32 in.

(100.6 x 81.3 cm). Inscribed, lower left:

A. J. Motley, Jr. Collection of Archie
Motley and Valerie Gerrard Browne.

The Chef combines figure and still-life
painting in a careful study of a cook and
his implements. Motley probably execut¬
ed the work as a student exercise during
his study at the School of the Art Institute
in 1914-18. It demonstrates the young
artist’s facility in the handling of surfaces of
various materials, including cloth, glass,
metal, fruit, and flesh. The sensitive treat¬
ment of light falling on the chefs head
and other forms anticipates Motley’s
fascination with light effects throughout
his career. But The Chef is devoid of
the social and psychological interest that
animates the artist’s portraits and genre
scenes. Indeed, Motley treats the chef
himself as simply another form in his
still-life composition, as the figure strikes
a somewhat frozen pose with his pot
and ladle.

Provenance: Archibald J. Motley, Jr.,
c. 1916-81; Archie Motley, 1981 -86;
Archie Motley and Valerie Gerrard
Browne, 1986.

67

2

Seated Nude, c. 1916-18
Oil on canvas, 37 % x 33% in.

(95.6 x 85.7 cm). Collection of Archie
Motley and Valerie Gerrard Browne.

Like The Chef(c. 1916-18, cat. no. I),
this rendering of a nude woman is proba¬
bly a product of Motley’s study at the Art
Institute. Only advanced students painted
from the live model, following mastery
of the rendering of plaster casts. In this
exercise Motley explored the problem of
giving convincing three-dimensionality to
the soft contours of flesh, muscle, and
bone. Leaving surrounding space unde¬
fined and unfinished, he focuses on the
seated figure, quietly posed with her back
to the viewer. The muted colors and
slightly broken brushwork of Motley’s
Seated Nude reflect the stylistic influence
of Chicago’s conservative painters, who
dominated the Art Institute’s faculty while
Motley studied there.

Provenance: Archibald J. Motley, Jr.,
c. 1916-81; Archie Motley, 1981 -86;
Archie Motley and Valerie Gerrard
Browne. 1986.

3

Rita, c. 1918

Oil on canvas, 17 'Ax 14% in.

(43.4 x 36.2 cm). Inscribed, lower right:

A. J. Motley, Jr./I 927. Collection of Archie
Motley and Valerie Gerrard Browne.

Motley probably painted this likeness of
Rita, his niece, in his earliest years as a
portraitist, adding his signature and the
date later in life. Motley’s only known
portrait of a child, Rita shares its dark
tones and straightforward composition
with other early portraits, such as
the images of the artist’s parents and the
self-portrait of about 1920. Rita’s softly
painted face, framed by the halo of her
hair, fills the image as her dark eyes
engage the viewer.

Provenance: Archibald J. Motley, Jr.
1918-81; Archie Motley, 1981 -86;
Archie Motley and Valerie Gerrard
Browne, 1986.

References: Woodall, 1977, no. I.

69

4

Portrait of My Mother, 1919
Oil on canvas, 32'A x 28!4 in.

(81.6x71.8 cm). Inscribed, lower right:
A. J. Motley, Jr./I 919. Collection of Archie
Motley and Valerie Gerrard Browne.

The artist’s mother, Mary R Huff Motley
was a schoolteacher in Louisiana before
her marriage to Archibald J. Motley, Sr. A
source of constant encouragement to her
son in his early ambition to become an
artist, she visited him and his wife during
the year they spent in Paris, in 1929-30.

The first of two portraits Motley paint¬
ed of his mother, this was the first painting
he exhibited as a professional artist. He
had hesitated to submit it to The Art Insti¬
tute of Chicago’s annual exhibition ‘Artists
of Chicago and Vicinity” in 1921, but his
friend, painter Josef Tomanek (1889- ?),
encouraged Motley to do so by offering
to frame it himself.

The composition of Portrait of My
Mother is almost symmetrically simple,
with the sitter posed facing the viewer
head-on. The image is saturated with
shades of brown, punctuated by the
white collar of Mary Motley’s dress and
the stones in her pendant necklace. She
clasps her hands and gazes directly at the
viewer with a slightly enigmatic expres¬
sion in which curiosity, resignation, and
bemusement all seem a part.

Provenance: Archibald J. Motley, Jr.

1919-81; Archie Motley, 1981 -86; Archie
Motley and Valerie Gerrard Browne, 1986.
Exhibitions: Chicago, 1921; Chicago, 1922.
References: Art Institute, 1921; Woodall,
1977 no. 2.

70

5

Mulatress With Figurine and Dutch

Seascape, c. 1920

Oil on canvas, 31 54 x 2754 in.

(79.7 x 95.6 cm). Inscribed, lower right:

A. J. Motley, Jr. Collection of Archie
Motley and Valerie Gerrard Browne.

In the early twenties, Motley executed a
series of portraits of beautiful women of
mixed racial ancestry in which he “worked
diligently to give them the respect, dignity
and honor they deserve. ... I find in the
black women such a marvelous range of
color, all the way from very black to the
typical Caucasian type.’’ 1 Here Motley
portrays a very light-skinned woman
whose pallor is set off by her mass of
dark hair.

This unidentified model is a fashionable
young women who fixes the viewer
with a slightly quizzical gaze. To her right
Motley has placed a still-life arrangement
of studio props, including a plaster model
of a male torso, reminiscent of the
anatomical studies that formed part of
his education at The School of the
Art Institute. The Dutch-style landscape
above is one of many, usually fanciful,
paintings that the artist included within
his compositions.

Provenance: Archibald J. Motley, Jr.,
c. 1920-81; Archie Motley, 1981 -86;
Archie Motley and Valerie Gerrard
Browne, 1986.

71

6

Self-Portrait, c. 1920
Oil on canvas, 30% x 22% in.

(76.5 x 56.2 cm). Collection of
Charlotte C. Duplessis.

Although this early self-portrait was not
intended for exhibition or sale, it projects
the public persona of the professional
artist. Emerging from an undefined dark
background, Motley confronts the viewer
with an uncompromising gaze. He is for¬
mally attired in a dark suit, white shirt and
collar, and diamond-studded tie pin, his
hair and mustache carefully groomed.

The artist’s brilliantly colored palette, the
symbol of his vocation, presses forward
against the picture plane. Although Motley
painted his face and head with almost
finicky particularity, he daubed the image
of his palette with heavy blobs of different
colored paints to replicate the thickly
laden surface of his actual palette. The
painting of the hands, which Motley later
perfected, is awkward and tentative here.

Provenance: Archibald J. Motley, Jr.,
c. 1920- ?; Mrs. Flossie Moore, ?— 1985;
Charlotte C. Duplessis, 1985.

72

7

Portrait of the Artist’s Father (Portrait of
My Father), c. 1921
Oil on canvas, 36 x 29 in. (91.4 x
73.7 cm). Inscribed, lower right: A. J.
Motley, Jr. Collection of Archie Motley
and Valerie Gerrard Browne.

Family members remember Archibald J.
Motley, Sr. (c. 1870-1935) as a strict but
tender father. With his son occasionally
accompanying him, Motley, Sr., worked
as a Pullman porter on trains that traveled
throughout the continental United States.
Among the many acquaintances he made
on his travels was Frank W. Gunsaulus,
president of the Armour Institute, who
was so impressed with the younger
Motley that he paid his first year of tuition
at The Art Institute of Chicago.

Portrait of the Artist's Father is Motley’s
tribute to his parent. Posed in a dark
interior as a gentleman of leisure, reading
a book and smoking a cigar, the rather
stern-looking, bespectacled elder Motley
is conservatively attired in a dark suit and
tie. On the table to Motley’s right is a
figurine with a laughing or grimacing face.
It lends a satiric touch to this otherwise
sober portrait, which is rendered in the
same almost monochromatic palette of
Motley’s slightly earlier Portrait of My
Mother ( 1919, cat. no. 4).

Provenance: Archibald J. Motley, Jr.,
1921-81; Archie Motley 1981-86;

Archie Motley and Valerie Gerrard
Browne, 1986.

Exhibitions: Chicago, 1922.

References: Woodall, 1977, no. 3.

8

Octoroon (Portrait of an Octoroon, The

Octoroon), 1922

Oil on canvas, 37% x 29% in.

(95 x 75.6 cm). Inscribed, lower right:

A. J. Motley, Jr./1922. Collection of
Judge Norma Y Dotson.

As he honed his talents as a portraitist
in the early twenties, Motley favored wo¬
men of mixed racial ancestry for models,
drawing attention to this in the paintings’
titles. In addition to Octoroon he painted
The Octoroon Girl (1925, cat. no. 12) and
Aline, An Octoroon (1927, checklist no.

I I), of which he wrote: “... I have tried
to show that delicate one-eighth strain of
Negro blood. Therefore, I would say that
this painting was not only an artistic ven¬
ture but a scientific problem.” 2

The subject of Octoroon is a beautiful
young woman who engages the viewer
with a playful expression. Her gracefully
posed, long-fingered hands, as well as the
composition and lighting of her portrait,
bear a strong resemblance to Portrait of
A/I y Grandmother, painted in the same
year (cat. no. 9). But while Motley uses
shades of white and pale gray to set
off his grandmother’s dark skin, the
octoroon’s whiteness is emphasized by
contrast with her black dress and the dull
red drapery behind her.

Provenance: Archibald J. Motley, Jr.,

1922-81; Judge Norma Y Dotson, 1981.
Exhibitions: Chicago, 1923; New York,
1928: New York, 1929; New York, 1988
References: Art Institute, 1923; Harmon
Foundation, 1929; New Gallery, 1928;
Robinson, 1987; Woodall, 1977, no. 6.

74

9

Portrait of My Grandmother , 1922

Oil on canvas, 38/4 x 23 7 A in.

(97.1 x 60.6 cm). Inscribed, lower right:

A. J. Motley, Jr./I 922. Collection of Archie
Motley and Valerie Gerrard Browne.

Motley painted this portrait of his paternal
grandmother on a piece of a canvas laun¬
dry bag from the Wolverine, a train on
which he had worked as a porter with his
father. 3 In the early twenties the artist had
little money to purchase art supplies, so
he improvised and sometimes reused his
materials.

Emily Motley was a former slave who
lived with the Motley family in Chicago.

An artistically inclined woman, according
to her grandson, she exerted a profound
influence on the young artist and encour¬
aged his early efforts. 4 Motley particularly
admired her patience and her humility. 5
His straightforward portrait conveys these
qualities, presenting the octogenarian
woman as if she has just interrupted her
housework to sit for the artist. Her slen¬
der, work-worn hands lie quietly in her
aproned lap as she gazes directly at the
viewer. Motley portrays her aged face
and wrinkled neck both tenderly and
unsparingly, setting her against a plain,
light-colored background.

Provenance: Archibald J. Motley, Jr.,
1922-81; Archie Motley, 1981-86;

Archie Motley and Valerie Gerrard
Browne, 1986.

Exhibitions: Chicago, 1923; New York,
1928; Chicago (Woman’s Club), 1933;

Eos Angeles, 1976; Chicago, 1988; New
York, 1988.

References: Art Institute, 1923; Tribune,
1933; New Gallery, 1928; Woodall,
1977, no. 5.

75

76

10

Mending Socks, 1924
Oil on canvas, 43% x 40 in. (I I 1.4 x
101.6 cm). Inscribed, lower right: A. J.
Motley, Jr./I 924. Ackland Art Museum,
The University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill, Burton Emmett Collection.

The artist’s paternal grandmother, Emily
Motley, was eighty-two years old when
Motley portrayed her in this tender por¬
trait. He shows her engaged in her accus¬
tomed task of mending the family’s socks,
and surrounded by much-loved objects
that represent her character and her
story. 6 Emily Motley wears her old red
shawl, pinned with a brooch that bears
a picture of her only daughter. A deeply
religious woman, as suggested by the
crucifix hanging just behind her, she daily
read the Bible, seen on the table to her
right. Fruit, her favorite food, fills a bowl
on the table, where a pile of socks and
scissors and thread are close at hand.

The pattern of the blue tablecloth suggests
the abstract, geometric designs of Native
American arts, possibly Motley’s refer¬
ence to Emily Motley’s husband, a Native
American. Content among her favorite
things, the elderly, bespectacled woman
is intent on her mending, seemingly
oblivious to the viewer.

This highly personal image served not
only as Motley’s homage to his grand¬
mother, but as a powerful demonstration
of his special talent for portraiture. The
objects and details that profile the sitter’s
life also function on a more abstract level,
forming a carefully constructed compo¬
sition in which elemental geometric
shapes, light and dark masses, and prima¬
ry colors are balanced and juxtaposed.
Here Motley employs his most natural¬
istic style, rendering surfaces and vol¬
umes softly yet specifically. The subdued
harmony of his composition reinforces
the portrait’s theme of the dignity of age
and patient toil. One of the most widely
exhibited of Motley’s paintings, it has also
been perhaps the most popular, and the
artist considered it his finest portrait.

Provenance: Carl Hamilton, 1928-32;
George S. Heilman Collection/Anderson
Galleries, 1932-50; Ackland Art
Museum, The University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill, Burton
Emmett Collection, 1950.

Exhibitions: Chicago, 1925; Newark,

1927; New York, 1928; Washington,

D. C, 1929; New York, 1929; New
York, 1932; Los Angeles, 1976;
Huntsville, Alabama, 1979; Charleston,
1979; New York, 1984; Bellevue,
Washington, 1985; Newark, 1990.
References: Reader’s Digest, 1978;
American Negro Artists, 1929; Dover,
I960; Driskell, 1976; Harmon
Foundation, 1929; New Gallery, 1928;
Heilman, 1932; Hudson, 1979; Newark
Museum, 1927; Reynolds, 1990;
Woodall, 1977, no 7.

77

11

Woman Peeling Apples (Mammy)

(Nancy), 1924

Oil on canvas, 32 'A x 28 in. (82.5 x
71.1 cm). Inscribed, lower right: A. J.
Motley, Jr./I 924. Art & Artifacts Division,
Schomburg Center for Research in Black
Culture, The New York Public Library,
Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.

In Woman Peeling Apples, Motley pays
homage to working people. No stranger
to the demands of physical labor, Motley
had worked at odd jobs such as porter,
plumber, laborer, and waiter, since his
youth. He always took his sketchbook
with him to work, and he drew the peo¬
ple and activity around him whenever he
had a chance. This figure, dressed in a
loose-fitting plaid gown, her gray hair
bound by a kerchief, and peeling an apple
over a bowl in her lap, may have been a
co-worker or acquaintance from one of
his jobs.

Motley provides no setting beyond a
light-colored wall against which the apple
peeler’s solid form casts a slight shadow.
While he renders her clothing with fuzzy
softness, Motley depicts her face clearly
and specifically. A raking light casts a pur¬
ple hue on her skin, highlighting her
strong, and handsome features. The
painter thus focuses our attention not on
the woman’s occupation but on the com¬
manding presence of her direct, frank
gaze. Motley’s Woman Peeling Apples
transcends the mundane task it portrays
to express the dignity of work.

f "

Provenance: John Nail, 1928- ?; Art &
Artifacts Division, Schomburg Center for
Research in Black Culture, The New York
Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden
Foundations, ?- date.

Exhibitions: New York, 1928; Hudson,
1976; New York, 1987, New York,

1988; Newark, 1990.

References: Black Dimensions, 1976;
New Gallery, 1928; Studio Museum,
1987; Woodall, 1977, no.8

78

12

The Octoroon Girl , 1925

Oil on canvas, 38 x 30 in. (96.5 x 76.2
cm). Inscribed, lower right: A. J. Motley,
Jr./I 925. Collection of Carroll Greene.

In The Octoroon Girl , Motley portrayed a
beautiful young woman he met in a Black
Belt grocery store:

I looked at her, I didn’t know
whether I should say anything to
her or not. ... I wasn’t thinking
about the groceries I wanted to
buy, I was thinking about her. Not
that I was in love with her! I was in
love with what she’d look like on
canvas; I could just imagine. Finally
I got up enough steam to walk
over to her.

The young woman agreed to pose for
Motley. The result was a work that the
artist called the best portrait he ever
painted, aside from A/I ending Socks (1924,
cat. no. 10). 7

The octoroon poses elegantly, her
hands displayed gracefully. Her head is
just off the center of the canvas, its mass
counterweighted by the gold-framed pic¬
ture partially seen in the upper left corner.
The warm colors of the woman’s golden
skin, her red-trimmed dress, and the
brown wall behind her are offset by her
fashionable, close-fitting green hat. The
contrast of green and red is reiterated in
the books on the table by her left elbow.
The setting and costume, which convey
an atmosphere of refined formality, profile
the woman’s genteel social persona more
than her individual psychology. Yet the
self-composed dignity of sitter and por¬
trait alike are challenged by a grinning,

mustachioed figurine, which appears at
the picture’s right edge like the little figure
in the background of Motley’s Portrait of
the Artist's Father (c. 1921, cat. no. 7).

Provenance: Carl W. Hamilton, 1928- ?;
Galerie Osten-Kashey, ? -c. 1965; Carroll
Greene, c. 1965.

Exhibitions: New York, 1928; Harmon
Foundation, 1929; Washington, 1929;
New York, 1932.

References: Anderson Galleries, 1932;
Herald and Examiner, 1929; Fauset,

1990; Harmon Foundation, 1928;
National Gallery, 1929; New Gallery,
1928; New Yorker, 1928; Patterson,

1967; Woodall, 1977, no. I 1. 79

13

Reception (Afternoon Tea), 1926
Oil on canvas, 29 x 36/ in. (73.6 x
92 cm). Inscribed, lower right: A. J.
Motley, Jr./I 926. Collection of Judge
Norma Y. Dotson.

Reception shows a domestic interior, a
rare setting for Motley. In a well-appoint¬
ed room lit by a large central chandelier
and a floor lamp to the right, a group of
ladies is gathered around a table while a
formally attired black butler hovers near¬
by with his tray. A guest’s coat is draped
over a chair at the picture’s lower left,
and the winter evening darkens the win¬
dow at right. The fashionably coifed
women are dressed in dinner gowns of
low-cut design and pastel colors, and
despite the picture’s alternate title,
Afternoon Tea, they appear to be drinking
sherry or wine. The massive marble fire¬
place, on which rest a gold candelabra
and clock, and the paintings—a landscape
and a large formal portrait—hanging on
the back wall of the room suggest the
wealth and high social status of the gath¬
ering’s hostess.

Motley leaves the occasion of this
reception unspecified, directing our atten¬
tion instead to the elegant ease of the
assembled ladies, the pleasant atmo¬
sphere of the gathering, and the warm,
enclosed setting. As in Jockey Club (1929,
cat. no. 24), the figure of the black man
appears at the center of the composition,
but remains outside of the social interac¬
tion of the scene.

Provenance: Archibald J. Motley, Jr.,

1926- ?; Mrs. Flossie Moore, ? - 1965;
Judge Norma Y. Dotson, c. 1965.
Exhibitions: Detroit, 1988; New York,
1988.

References: Hunter, 1988; Woodall,
1977, no. 60.

80

14

Kikuyu God of Fire, 1927

Oil on canvas, 36 x 41 'A in. (91.4 x
104.4 cm). Inscribed, lower right:

A. J. Motley, Jr./I 927. Collection of Judge
Norma Y Dotson.

Kikuyu God of Fire is among five canvases
Motley painted on African themes at the
suggestion of George S. Heilman, direc¬
tor of the New Gallery in New York City,
where Motley’s one-person show was
held in early 1928. Heilman encouraged
the artist to do a series of paintings on
African themes. He was surely aware, as
was Motley, of current interest in African
tribal arts both among European avant-
garde artists such as Picasso and among
writers and intellectuals of the Harlem
Renaissance, notably Alain Locke, a pro¬
fessor at Howard University. In the influ¬
ential book The New Negro (1925), Locke
advocated that African-Americans look to
the arts of their ancestral homeland for
inspiration in their efforts to formulate a
distinct black cultural idiom.

Kikuyu God of Fire depicts a menancing
deity who glows with a supernatural light
as he rains fire down upon a terrified band
of diminutive warriors in a forest. Ngai,
the supreme god of the Gikuyu or Kikuyu
people of Kenya, was thought to manifest
himself through natural phenomena such
as thunder and lightning. Motley’s image
may also incorporate elements of Kibuka,
a Ugandan war god said to hover over
the battleground, shooting arrows down
upon the enemy.

African subjects posed special chal¬
lenges for Motley, who never visited his
ancestral homeland, but he drew inspira¬
tion from his grandmother’s stories of
Africa. In depicting a myth, however, the
artist could imagine and invent, portraying
the idea of the African locale rather than
its actuality. The theme of fire, dramatized
by the nighttime setting, gave Motley an
opportunity to explore complex light
effects and heighten the fantastic quality of
his mythic subject. The composition’s
high vantage point above the scene is
typical of his early genre paintings, such
as Tongues (1929, cat. no. 25).

Provenance: Archibald J. Motley, Jr.

1927-81; Judge Norma Y Dotson, 1981.
Exhibitions: New York, 1928; Chicago
(Woman’s Club), 1933; Chicago (Knights
of Pythias), 1933; Detroit, 1988;

New York, 1988.

References: Hunter, 1988; Robinson,
1988; Woodall, 1977, no. 15.

81

15

Barn and Silo, 1928

Oil on canvas, 29% x 35% in.

(75.6 x 90.2 cm). Inscribed, lower left:

A. J. Motley, Jr. Collection of Judge
Norma Y Dotson.

Barn and Silo may portray the farm
owned by the artist’s Uncle Bob in
Arkansas. From a high vantage point we
look out over a large barn partly shielded
by a row of trees in full leaf. To the left
horses graze. Beyond, white flecks
appear to be sheep scattered across an
open field. Motley renders the barn and
silo with specific detail, but otherwise
paints the scene loosely, with almost
fuzzy softness. The work suggests the
challenges presented by an open land¬
scape to an artist trained in figurative
painting and accustomed to the closely
confined spaces of city streets and
interiors.

Provenance: Archibald J. Motley, Jr.,
1928-81; Norma Y. Dotson, 1981.

82

16

Boat and Houses by the River, 1928

Oil on canvas, 28'A x 35 A in.

(72.4 x 90.2 cm). Inscribed, lower left:

A. J. Motley, Jr. Collection of Judge
Norma Y. Dotson.

In this intimate, uninhabited landscape the
solitude of the Arkansas scenery is intensi¬
fied by the presence of an empty boat tied
to a crude dock by a cabin at the water’s
edge. The precision of the boat’s reflec¬
tion is belied by the rippled water as the
river curves off in the distance, where
two cottages are visible. Motley, fascinat¬
ed by the problem of rendering light and
its effects, paid careful attention to the
wide range of colors reflected in the
water’s broken surface, which varies from
an almost black dark-green to bluish
white. His resolution of the relationship
between the river and the banks and dis¬
tant horizon is less sure.

Provenance: Archibald J. Motley, Jr.,

1928-81; Judge Norma Y Dotson 1981.

83

17

Landscape, 1928
Oil on canvas, 16 x 20 in. (40.6 x
50.8 cm). Inscribed: A. J. Motley, Jr./Ark.
1928. Collection of Judge Norma Y
Dotson and Sharon Y Holland.

The flat, barren Arkansas scenery inspired
Motley’s only forays in the pure portrayal
of nature. After the raucous clamor of his
genre scenes Motley’s Arkansas landscapes
are strikingly silent. This Landscape pre¬
sents a desolate tract seen through the
partial screen of four leafless, angular trees
that rise out of swampy ground on swollen
trunks. Sunlight flickers on the broken sur¬
face of the water. A high horizon encloses
the view, suggesting the loneliness that the
sparse Arkansas landscape may have
evoked for the city-bred Motley. His vision
of nature imbued with its own intense psy¬
chic energy is reminiscent of the haunted
landscapes of his contemporary, painter
Charles Burchfield (1893-1967).

Provenance: Archibald J. Motley, Jr.,

1928-81; Judge Norma Y Dotson and
Sharon Y Holland, 1981.

Exhibitions: Detroit, 1988; New York, 1988.
References: Robinson, 1988.

84

18

Landscape-Arkansas , 1928
Oil on canvas, 18 x 14 in. (45.7 x
35.6 cm). Collection of Judge Norma
Y Dotson and Sharon Y Holland.

In this intimate landscape, smoke rises
from the chimney of a wood-frame
cottage as sunlight filters through the tall
trees that surround it. The scene is suf¬
fused in pale golds and greens under a del¬
icately tinted pale blue sky, suggesting early
morning. Motley handles both the applica¬
tion of paint and the construction of distant
space with greater confidence here than
he displayed in Boot and Houses by the
River (1928, cat. no. 16) and Barn and Silo
(1928, cat. no. 15). His rendering of
ground and trees with short, rapidly
applied brushstrokes to evoke flickering
light and atmosphere suggests the influ¬
ence of Chicago’s impressionist landscape
painters of the teens and twenties, includ¬
ing Karl Albert Buehr (1866-52) and
Albert Krehbiel (1873-45), Motley’s
teachers at The School of the Art Institute.

Provenance: Archibald J. Motley, Jr., 1928-81; Judge
Norma Y Dotson and Sharon Y Holland, 1981.
Exhibitions: Detroit, 1988; New York, 1988.
References: Robinson, 1988.

19

The Snuff Dipper , 1928

Oil on canvas, 22/ x 16% in.

(56.5 x 41.6 cm). Inscribed, lower right:
A.J. Motley, Jr./Ark. 1928. DuSable
Museum of African American History.

This portrait and Uncle Bob (1928, cat.
no. 20) are the only two recorded por¬
traits that Motley painted while in
Arkansas. The identity of this strong-fea¬
tured older woman is not known, but she
may have been a neighbor of the artist’s
Arkansas relatives. She poses somewhat
stiffly, regarding the viewer with a skepti¬
cal, almost suspicious gaze. The formality
of her hat, with its ostrich feather orna¬
ment, contrasts with the reed that hangs
from her lips, suggesting a knowing
toughness of character. In rural Arkansas,
a certain reed or grass was chewed at
one end to flatten it into a spoonlike
shape for dipping into snuff. Thus the title
of Motley’s portrait may apply to both the
sitter and to the reed that she chews.

Provenance: Archibald J. Motley, Jr.,

1928- ?; Oscar Stadeker ? -1985;
DuSable Museum of African American
History, 1985.

Exhibitions: New York, 1931; Chicago
(Woman’s Club), 1933; New York, 1988
References: Aden, 1940; Art Institute,
1930; Fine, 1973; Robinson, 1988;
Woodall, 1977, no. 28.

86

20

Uncle Bob, 1928

Oil on canvas, 40% x 36 in. (101.9 x
91.4 cm). Inscribed, lower right: A. J.
Motley, Jr./Ark. 1928. Collection of Archie
Motley and Valerie Gerrard Browne.

Robert White, Mary Motley’s half-brother,
moved from New Orleans to Arkansas,
where he became a farmer. Motley paint¬
ed the elderly man sitting on the porch of
his home. Although Uncle Bob is pictured
relaxing with his pipe, one elbow resting
on the table to his left, his somewhat erect
posture and head-on position suggest a
man unaccustomed to posing under an
artist’s close scrutiny. Motley pays special
attention to the work-worn hands of his
venerable subject. Shortly after Motley
executed this portrait, while he was work¬
ing in Paris in 1929-30, he received word
of Uncle Bob’s death.

In later years the artist painted the back¬
ground clapboarding of this scene a brilliant
blue, and added touches of blue highlight¬
ing to the figure’s beard and hair. The
painting has been restored to its original
appearance. Its soft brown and green hues
evoke the subject’s rural surroundings.

Provenance: Archibald J. Motley, Jr.,
1928-81; Archie Motley 1981 -86;
Archie Motley and Valerie Gerrard
Browne, 1986.

Exhibitions: Chicago, 1930;
Chicago (Woman’s Club), 1933;
Washington, D.C., 1940.
References: Tribune, 1933;

Woodall, 1977, no. 29.

87

21

Blues, 1929

Oil on canvas, 36 x 42 in. (91.47 x
106.7 cm). Inscribed, lower right: A. J
Motley, Jr./ Paris. Collection of Archie
Motley and Valerie Gerrard Browne.

Superbly evocative of the Jazz Age in
both its subject and style, Blues has
become perhaps Motley’s best-known
work. The artist had already explored the
theme of black cabaret life in early works
like Black and Tan Cabaret (1921, check¬
list no. 3) and Syncopation (1924, checklist
no. 4). But in Blues he developed a new
style more directly influenced by the
music that inspired it. He crowds the
swaying musicians, dancing couples, and
seated onlookers up against the picture
plane. The mass of figures and objects
resolves itself into an almost abstract pat¬
tern of flat, colored shapes in which the
repetition and variation of motifs sets up
syncopated rhythms. The painting’s warm
tonalities and its apparently spontaneous
composition, in which figures are casually
cropped by the boundaries of pictorial
space, convey the crowded atmosphere
of this lively nightspot.

Blues shows the interior of the Petite
Cafe, a stylish haunt of Paris’s community
of expatriate Africans and West Indians.
Motley made numerous sketches there,
from which he created this carefully
orchestrated composition in his studio.
Although the scene includes no Ameri¬
cans, it makes reference to Motley’s Chicago
roots in both its musical and social con¬
tent. The artist’s hometown is considered
a birthplace of modern jazz as well as of
urban blues, nurturing important musical
innovators such as Louis Armstrong,
whose unique style has been likened to
the rhythms of Motley’s Blues. 8

One of Motley’s most indelible images,
Blues anticipates in style and theme many
of Motley’s most important works in the
decades to come.

Provenance: Archibald J. Motley, Jr.,

1929-81; Archie Motley, 1981 -86;
Archie Motley and Valerie Gerrard
Bcowne, 1986.

Exhibitions: Stockholm, 1930; Chicago,
1931; American Federation of Arts
193 1-32; Brooklyn, 1932; Chicago
(Woman’s Club), 1933; Toledo, 1934;
New York 1937; Chicago, 1947; St.
Louis, 1977; Washington, 1980;
Washington, 1989.

References: Art Institute, 1931; Barter,
1977; Brooklyn Museum, 1932;
Jacobson, 1933; Kramer, 1974; Powell,

1989; Roberts, 1937; Robinson, 1987;
Toledo Museum, 1934; Wallace, 1986;
Woodall, 1977, no. 34.

89

22

Cafe, Paris , 1929

Oil on canvas, 23% x 28% in. (58.7 x
73.3 cm). Inscribed, lower right: A. J.
Motley, Jr./Paris 1929. Collection of Archie
Motley and Valerie Gerrard Browne.

The cafes of Paris were a venerable
artistic subject by the time Motley
arrived in the French capital in 1929 as
a Guggenheim fellow. As a locale for the
social interactions of the French bour¬
geoisie the cafe had attracted the talents
of many French impressionist and post-
impressionist artists, as well as Americans
such as William Glackens, whose cafe
scene called Chez Mouquin (1905), was
acquired by the Art Institute of Chicago
in 1925.

Motley pictures a cafe bar where
patrons stand and chat as the proprietor
looks on. At lower right, two men drink
at a small table. The dog, a motif that
reappears in several of Motley’s Bronze-
ville genre paintings, sits by the door
observing the scene. Through a large
plate-glass window that takes up most of
the background of the painting, Motley
provides a glimpse into the street, the
subject of his Dans la Rue, Paris (1929,
cat. no. 23). The composition of Cafe,
Paris is structured around a series of
repeating, interlocking rectangles formed
by the window and exterior wall of the
cafe, and repeated in the mirror behind

the bar and the shelves of bottles above
it. The reversal of the red letters which
advertise the cafe on its window is
echoed in the reflection of the bar¬
tender’s head in the mirror behind him.
The scene is rendered in relatively cool
tones of gray, black, and brown, with
notes of red, similar to the palette of
Dans la Rue, Paris. Motley probably later
added the highlights of blue on the bar
and on the black hair of the male patron
talking to the women.

Provenance: Archibald J. Motley, Jr.,
1929-81; Archie Motley, 1981 -86;
Archie Motley and Valerie Gerrard
Browne, 1986.

90

23

Dans la Rue, Paris, 1929

Oil on canvas, 23 % x 28 'A in. (60.3 x
72.4 cm). Inscribed, lower left: A. J.
Motley, Jr./1929. Art & Artifacts Division,
Schomburg Center for Research in Black
Culture, The New York Public Library,
Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.

Motley’s scene of Paris’s characteristic
urban architecture and inhabitants is
divided vertically into two busy sections.
On the left, a variety of figures crowd the
wide sidewalk in front of an outdoor cafe
with a pink-trimmed awning and white
tables, where uniformed waiters serve
seated patrons. On the right, cars and a
cyclist advance and recede along a stone-
paved street as a man with a cane makes
his way to the safety of the far sidewalk.

As in his Bronzeville street scenes, Motley
balances figures of contrasting ages and
pursuits: a pair of lovers and a cleric
absorbed in a prayerbook, a blue-clad
street sweeper bent to his task and the
flower seller offering a bouquet, the
elderly man with the cane and the cyclist
who has just careened past him.

The artist’s interest in capturing the
flavor of his Paris setting is evident in the
cool, blue-gray and black color scheme
leavened by flashes of red and the bright
yellow of the receding automobile, and in
his attention to such peculiarly local details
as the stone-paved street, the news
kiosk, and the shutters of the building on
the right. One of Motley’s earliest street
scenes, Dons la Rue, Paris (1929, cat. no.
23) heralded a long series of Bronzeville
street views he painted in the next two
decades.

Provenance: Agnes and Ivin C. Mollison,
? -1973; Art & Artifacts Division,
Schomburg Center for Research in
Black Culture, The New York Public
Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden
Foundations, 1973.

Exhibitions: New York, 1931; New York,
1967; New York, 1968; New York,

1988; Newark, 1990.

References: Fine, 1973; Ghent, 1968;
Woodall, 1977, no. 32.

91

24

Jockey Club, 1929

Oil on canvas, 26 x 32 in. (66 x 81.3 cm).
Art & Artifacts Division, Schomburg
Center for Research in Black Culture,

The New York Public Library, Astor,

Lenox and Tilden Foundations.

In Jockey Club Motley returns to the
themes of nighttime and entertainment.
But instead of the crowded interiors of
night spots represented in his early
Chicago cabaret scenes and in Blues
(1929, cat. no. 21), here he pictures that
world from outside. Stylishly dressed
women and men, a gendarme (a French
policeman) among them, mingle near the
entrance to a night club, anticipating but
not yet enjoying the entertainment with¬
in. The scene is punctuated by light shed
by street lights, car headlights, and stars,
lending an aura of romance and excite¬
ment to this scene suffused in shades of
red, rose pink, and soft blue.

Figures of a cowboy and an Indian deco¬
rate the building’s walls, suggesting, along
with the club’s name, an American
theme. These references to the artist’s
homeland are complemented ironically
by the presence of a lone black figure, the
grinning, red-uniformed doorman, who
stands at the club’s entrance framed by
the flood of light from within. Although
Motley has placed him in the composi¬
tion’s very center, he is ignored by the
other figures, suggesting the isolation
and marginalization of blacks in
American society.

Provenance: Agnes and Irvin C. Mollison,
?-1973; Art & Artifacts Division,
Schomburg Center for Research in
Black Culture, The New York Public
Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden
Foundations, 1973.

Exhibitions: New York, 1931; Chicago
(Kroch’s), 1933; Chicago (Woman’s
Club), 1933; New York, 1967; New
York, 1978; New York, 1987;

New York, 1989.

References: Art Institute, 1933; Bernard,

1989; Campbell, 1987; City University of
New York, 1967; Fine, 1973; National
Urban League, 1978; Woodall, 1977,
no. 33.

93

25

Tongues (Holy Rollers), 1929

Oil on canvas, 29% x 36% in.

(74.3 x 91.7 cm). Inscribed, lower left:

A. J. Motley, Jr./ 1929. Collection of Archie
Motley and Valerie Gerrard Browne.

In Tongues Motley captures the excitement
of a church meeting in rural Arkansas. To
the sounds of a guitar, a tambourine, and
two exuberant singers, and the vigorous
hand-clapping and foot-stomping of the
congregation, a woman in white, as if
possessed by the spirit, sways with the
preacher. The varied worshippers, from
fashionably dressed young women to the
heavy, bald man leaning on a cane in the
right foreground (a figure who reappears
in other Motley paintings), enthusiastically
heed the message “Jesus Saves” embla¬
zoned on the back wall. The bare, stage¬
like space, framed by black curtains, is illu¬
minated by a trio of lights, suggesting
the Trinity.

Lively music, spontaneous demon¬
strations of the spirit, and "speaking in
tongues” were all features of the
Pentecostal or Holiness churches that
black southerners established in Chicago.
Although Motley, a Roman Catholic,
viewed their services as an outsider, he
brings a sympathetic vision to this scene.

Com positionally, Tongues resembles
other early genre works by Motley,
notably Reception (1926, cat. no. 13)
and Stomp (1927, checklist no. 8), in its
high vantage point over the scene, its
deliberately naive rendering of perspec¬
tive, and the miniaturized quality of the
figures. Ironically, Motley’s view of an
Arkansas church meeting is particularly
related to Stomp, a lively nightclub scene.
The two works share a boxlike construc¬
tion of space, such details as framing cur¬
tains and an illuminated central chandelier,
and even the gestures of some of the
participants.

Provenance: Archibald J. Motley, Jr.,

1929-81; Archie Motley, 1981 -86;
Archie Motley and Valerie Gerrard
Browne, 1986.

Exhibitions: Chicago, 1930; Chicago
(Renaissance Society), 1930; Chicago
(Woman’s Club), 1933; Chicago (Knights
of Pythias), 1933; New York, 1933.
References: Art Institute, 1930; Chicago
Daily News, 1929; Tribune, 1933;
Renaissance Society, 1930; Whitney
Museum, 1933; Woodall, 1977, no. 30.

95

26

Nude (Portrait of My Wife), 1930

Oil on canvas, 28% x 23% in. (73 x
59.7 cm). Inscribed, lower right: A. J.
Motley, Jr./ Paris 1930. Collection of
Archie Motley and Valerie Gerrard
Browne.

Motley’s nude portrait of Edith Granzo
(1894-1948), whom he married in 1924,
is both tender and uncompromisingly
honest. Shown to hip level, the figure is
posed with confrontational straightfor¬
wardness, facing the viewer head-on and
illuminated by a raking light from the left.
Motley renders the rounded contours of
Edith’s full figure with a seemingly photo¬
graphic realism and a particularity that
recalls the obsessive surface detail of early
Renaissance portraiture, of which he
encountered numerous examples in the
Louvre. Edith’s made-up face, in contrast,
is deliberately mask-like in its enigmatic,
virtually frozen expression, framed by
her fashionably styled hair.

This Nude, painted in Paris during
Motley’s stay there as a Guggenheim fel¬
low in 1929-30, is one of only a handful
of nudes in his oeuvre. It seems likely,
however, that Motley would have painted
more had he had opportunity. In portrai¬
ture he favored female over male mod¬
els. Significantly, in his self-portrait of 1933
(cat. no. 3 I) he depicts himself working
on a painting of a nude woman. Nude
offers a glimpse of the level of achieve¬
ment Motley might have reached in the
genre of pure figurative art.

Provenance: Archibald J. Motley, Jr.,

1930-81; Archie Motley 1981 -86; Archie
Motley and Valerie Gerrard Browne, 1986.
Exhibitions: Chicago (Woman’s Club), 1933
References: Woodall, 1977, no. 40.

96

27

Portrait of Mrs. A. J. Motley, Jr. , 1930

Oil on canvas, 39% x 32 in. (100.6 x
81.3 cm). Inscribed, lower right:

A. J. Motley, Jr./ Paris 1930. Collection
of Archie Motley and Valerie Gerrard
Browne.

This portrait of his wife, executed, along
with Nude (cat. no. 26), in Paris in 1930,
probably represents the type of conven¬
tional society portraiture by which Motley
had originally hoped to make a living.

Dark and somewhat somber, Portrait of
Mrs. A.J. Motley, Jr. presents the sitter less
as the wife of the artist than as a society
matron. Her fixed expression is some¬
what reserved and even forbidding. Mrs.
Motley sits comfortably but formally,
attired in a stylish dress strikingly orna¬
mented with a fox stole arranged on her
shoulders. The artist draws our attention
to her hands, one of which holds a pair of
gloves. This detail, along with the sitter’s
dress and pose, the dark tones of the
image, and even the dark gold-framed
picture partially seen in the upper corner
of the composition, all recall one of the
artist’s favorite portraits, The Octoroon Girl
(cat. no. 12), painted five years earlier.

Provenance: Archibald J. Motley, Jr.,

1930-81; Archie Motley, 1981 -86; Archie
Motley and Valerie Gerrard Browne, 1986.
References: Woodall, 1977, no. 38.

97

2

28

Brown Girl After the Bath, 193 I

Oil on canvas, 48 % x 36 in. (122.5 x
91.4 cm). Inscribed, lower left: A. J.
Motley Jr./I 93 I. Collection of Archie
Motley and Valerie Gerrard Browne.

Brown Girl is Motley’s most ambitious
portrayal of an individual figure. Undressed
except for her clumsy, fashionable shoes,
the young woman turns away from the
viewer but makes eye contact in the
dressing table mirror, which reflects her
shy, almost startled expression. The soft
light of the lamp falls fully on her breasts
in her mirrored image. Her left hand cra¬
dles a cosmetic jar, and in her right hand
she holds a powder puff. The dimly lit
interior, framed at left by a swept-back
curtain, includes the curving outline of the
headboard of a bed, reflected in the mir¬
ror. These details enhance the impression
that the viewer has intruded on a private
moment.

Painted shortly after Motley’s return
from Paris, Brown Girl After the Both is a
far more complex essay in figurative
painting than his straightforward Nude
(1930, cat. no. 26), both thematically and
com positionally. It suggests his awareness
of the pictorial tradition of the sensuous
nude in a bedroom setting in such exam¬
ples as the Louvre’s Olympia by Edouard
Manet. But in Brown Girl Motley recasts
this tradition. He portrays a young black
woman, and details such as the buckled
shoes, the electric lamp, and the twen-
ties-style dresser firmly anchor the scene
in the modern era.

Provenance: Archibald J. Motley, Jr.,
1931-81; Archie Motley, 1981-86;
Archie Motley and Valerie Gerrard
Browne, 1986.

Exhibitions: Michigan, 1932;
Washington, D.C., 1932; Chicago, 1932;
New York, 1933; Chicago (Woman’s
Club), 1933; New York, 1988.
References: Art Institute, 1932; Black
Collegian, 1985; Chicago Evening Post,

1932; Viva, 1976; Woodall, 1977, no. 44.

98

29

Portrait of a Woman on a Wicker Settee ,

1931

Oil on canvas, 38% x 3 I % in. (98.4 x
79.4 cm). Inscribed, lower left: A. J.
Motley, Jr./I 93 I. Collection of Archie
Motley and Valerie Gerrard Browne.

One of Motley’s last and most elaborate
portrait compositions, this image of an
unidentified woman presses the sitter
toward the picture plane before a varied
backdrop of furniture and ornament. The
high dresser with its light and dark wood
tones and floral ornament, topped by an
Oriental-style green ceramic vase, and
the greenish wicker settee on which the
woman poses are modern pieces that
speak of a middle-class Chicago home of
the day. In the upper left corner, a partial¬
ly visible copy of a portrait by Raphael,
which Motley knew from the collection of
the Louvre in Paris, seems to look down
on the scene. Just behind the sitter’s right
elbow, on a table draped with a floral fab¬
ric, stands a bronze female figure, possi¬
bly an allegorical representation. The stat¬
uette was a fixture of Motley’s studio and
reappears in two paintings of personal sig¬
nificance to the artist: his self-portrait of
1933 (cat. no. 3 I), and the late allegorical
work known as The First One Hundred
Years (c. 1963-72, cat. no. 69).

The elaborate setting complements
Motley’s representation of his sitter, an
apparently well-to-do woman. One arm
resting on the arm of the settee, she
seems to lay claim to the space around
her and its substantial contents.

This may be a portrait of Motley’s moth¬
er. It is similar to the unlocated Portrait of
A/I y Mother (checklist no. 36; fig. 16),
which the artist first exhibited in the
Harmon Foundation exhibition of 193 I.

Provenance: Archibald J. Motley, Jr.,
1931-81; Archie Motley 1981 -86; Archie
Motley and Valerie Gerrard Browne, 1986.

99

100

30

The Plotters, 1933

Oil on canvas, 36% x 40% in.

(91.7 x 102.2 cm). Inscribed, lower left:

A. J. Motley, Jr. Collection of Walter
0. Evans, M.D.

The Plotters is one of several works,
including The bar (cat. no. 38) and The
Boys in the Back Room (cat. no.34), in
which Motley focuses closely on a small
number of figures, a compositional for¬
mula explored earlier in Blues (1929, cat.
no. 21). But here the artist has exchanged
his typically congenial or jaunty mood for
a conspiratorial air in a carefully observed
study of a closed circle of men gathered
around a table. As the two men in the
foreground look intently at one another,
a green-coated figure behind them points
to a sheet of paper on the table. The
nature of the plot is unknown, but the fig¬
ures’ concentrated expressions and tense
postures convey secrecy and intrigue.

Motley reiterates the mood of his sub¬
ject by a tightly confined composition in
which every figure is cut off by the pic¬
ture’s edge. This device applies even to
the image in the background, where a
black boxer is seen taking on a white
opponent, perhaps a reference to the
pride that African-Americans felt in boxing
heroes like Jack Johnson. In the group of
five plotters, repeated shapes of heads
and hats and the strong angles of gestur¬
ing hands, bent arms, and protruding
cigarettes sets up a complex though
seemingly spontaneous rhythm. In con¬
trast to the sometimes vibrant colors of
Motley’s Bronzeville street scenes, The
Plotters offers a subdued palette appropri¬
ate to the quiet tension of its subject.

Provenance: Commissioned by the
WPA, 1933; Margaret Burroughs,

?-1985; Walter O. Evans, M.D., 1985.
Exhibitions: New York, 1967; Detroit,
1988; New York, 1988.

References: Robinson, 1988; Woodall,
1977, no. 62.

101

31

Self-Portrait (Myself at Work), 1933

Oil on canvas, 57% x 45% in.

(145 x I 14.9 cm). Inscribed, lower left:

A. J. Motley, Jr. 1933. Collection of Archie
Motley and Valerie Gerrard Browne.

The second of two self-portraits Motley
executed, this work may be read as a
complex allegory of his life and aspira¬
tions. Standing in the clear northern light
of his studio, the artist faces the viewer
with an almost confrontational boldness.
While apparently in the act of applying
paint to the large canvas at his side, he
looks straight ahead with a concentrated
expression, which is partly the result of
Motley painting himself by looking in a
mirror (he reversed what he saw there in
order to correctly show himself as right-
handed). The artist holds his palette,
bearing blobs of different colored paints,
with his left hand; spread before him are
other tools of his trade: long-handled
brushes, a palette knife, a bottle of linseed
oil, and a rag. Significantly, given his inter¬
est in and talent for nude painting, Motley
works here on a painting of a nude; with
his signature, at lower left, he signs both
his self-portrait and this painting-within-a-
painting.

The objects surrounding Motley de¬
scribe his personal and artistic identity.
Above his head, a plaster mask, like
those that he studied and copied as a stu¬
dent at The Art Institute of Chicago, pays
homage to his laborious academic train¬
ing. The Roman Catholic crucifix at upper
left, positioned almost as a similar crucifix
appears in relation to his grandmother
in Mending Socks (1924, cat. no. 10),
serves as an emblem both of religion
and of family history. Immediately in front
of his palette, at lower right, is the bronze
statuette that appears in other works.
European, perhaps classical, in style and
content, the statuette and the artist’s at¬
tire (the beret, smock, and open-necked
shirt he adopted during his year in France)
suggest Motley’s identification with the
academic artistic traditions. In contrast to
his formal Self-Portrait of more than a de¬
cade earlier (c. 1920, cat. no. 6),

Motley’s 1933 likeness bears out its alter¬
nate title Myself at Work. A realistic image
of the artist painting in his studio, it also
summarizes his confident acceptance, at
the mid-point of his career, of his person¬
al and artistic self-identity.

Provenance: Archibald J. Motley, Jr.,

1933-81; Archie Motley, 1981 -86;
Archie Motley and Valerie Gerrard
Browne, 1986.

Exhibitions: Chicago, 1935; Chicago
(Davis Store), 1935; New York, 1988.
References: Davis Store, 1935; Woodall,
1977, no. 45.

103

32

Black Belt, 1934

Oil on canvas, 3 I % x 39 % in.

(50.6 x 100 cm). Inscribed, lower left:
A. J. Motley, Jr./1934. Hampton
University Museum.

Black Belt is Motley’s earliest recorded
depiction of Bronzeville’s lively street life,
one of many such works he executed
between the mid-thirties and the late for¬
ties. This work established a pattern for
the series in several respects.

As in many of his Black Belt street
scenes, a nighttime setting provides an
opportunity for the interplay of numerous
light sources, from the stars dotting the
dark sky overhead to the lights from a
street lamp, storefronts, and upstairs win¬
dows to the beams of an oncoming car
broken by the figure of a pedestrian who
dashes in front of it. Of Black Belt Motley
wrote: “I have always possessed a sincere
love for the play of light in painting and
especially the combination of early moon¬
light and artificial light. This painting was
born first of that desire and secondly to
depict a street scene, wherein I could
produce a great variety of Negro charac¬
ters.” 9

In Black Belt's friezelike row of fore¬
ground figures, a pattern of alternating
men and women is broken by the group
formed by the white-gloved policeman
in profile, a bent old man to whom he
extends his right hand, and a newsboy

who shouts up into the pedestrian’s face
while waving his papers. A further con¬
trast is set up between the fat, shirt¬
sleeved, bald man who faces the viewer
but is lost in thought, and several pairs of
conversing men and women who sur¬
round him. This figure’s self-absorption
seems out of place in the cheerful scene
Motley creates. In the background, a
drugstore featuring cigars and cigarettes,
a restaurant with the welcoming name
“Drop Inn,” a hotel, and a taxi in which
a pair of lovers embrace, all describe
Motley’s nighttime Black Belt as a place of
carefree pleasure.

Provenance: The Harmon Foundation,
1935-67; Hampton University Museum,
1967.

Exhibitions: Texas, 1935; Chicago, 1935;
Baltimore, 1939; Chicago, 1940; New
York, 1942; New York, 1945; Bellevue,
Washington, 1985; New York, 1988.
References: American Heritage, 1986;
Art Institute, 1935; Locke, 1940; Locke,
1945; Halpert, 1942; Woodall, 1977, no.
64.

104

33

Barbecue, c. 1934

Oil on canvas, 36% x 40% in (91.5 x
101.6 cm). Inscribed, A. J. Motley, Jr.
Permanent Collection, Howard University
Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Barbecue combines two of Motley’s
favorite settings: evening out-of-doors
and the elegant gathering spot. While
waiters scurry in the background, clusters
of fashionable couples mingle amid a sea
of white-draped cafe tables. The scene
is punctuated by strings of electric lights
that play against the starry sky in the
background.

One of a number of nightlife scenes
that Motley painted during his appoint¬
ment as visiting instructor at Howard
University in Washington, D.C., Barbecue
exemplifies his style in the mid-1930s.
Streamlining the forms of objects and
people, Motley contrasts flat colors and
shapes for formal effect. His figures
almost float in a barely defined space
where a pale rose ground softly blends
with the night sky. Stressing the mood of
his setting rather than the individuality of
his figures, Motley defines a range of
characters by varying facial expressions
and gestures.

Provenance: Fort Huachuca, Arizona,
WPA Allocation, c. 1941-47; Howard
University Gallery of Art, 1947.
Exhibitions: Washington, D.C., 1934;
Texas, 1936; Baltimore, 1939; Maryland,
1939; New York, 1988.

References: Baltimore Museum, 1939;
Corcoran Gallery, 1934; McElroy, 1990;
Robinson, 1988; Dallas, 1936; Woodall,
1977, no. 59.

105

34

The Boys in the Back Room (Card
Players), c. 1934

Oil on canvas, 30 x 40 in. (76.2 x 101.6
cm). Inscribed, lower left: A. J. Motley, Jr.
Collection of Reginald Lewis.

In this reworking of the composition of
The Plotters (1933, cat. no. 30), Motley
presents a poker game in the "back
room" of a Black Belt bar or pool hall.
Three players are seated at a table
draped with a white cloth, while a pair of
onlookers enjoys the game and a waiter,
seen from behind, approaches with
refreshment. On the wall behind the
group, an image of a horse race comple¬
ments the theme of competition in the
card game.

As in The Plotters, Motley’s color
scheme is subdued, with gray walls and
floors setting off the dark clothing of the
figures. The arrangement of hands and
arms against the white tablecloth, the
men’s hats, and even the physical type of
the shirt-sleeved, bald, heavy man echo
from one canvas to the other. But The
Boys in the Back Room, from the smiles of
the onlookers to the very subject of game
playing, returns us to Motley’s character¬
istically upbeat view of Black Belt life.

Provenance: WPA, 1934-?; International
Gallery, ?— 1957; Erwin Weiner, c.
1957-88; Reginald Lewis, 1988.
References: Woodall, 1977, no. 61.

106

Between Acts takes us backstage to the
dressing room of two female performers
who relax in seminudity. Beyond the
open door at right, a vaudevillian figure,
perhaps awaiting his cue to step onstage,
suggests the varied character of the
revue, in which the women may appear
as dancers or strippers. One, wearing
only shoes and stockings and a push-up
bra, smokes a cigarette as she slouches in
a chair. The other, in bra and high-heeled
shoes, brushes her hair as she stands
before a mirrored dresser.

The theme of the woman at her toi¬
lette, the device of the mirrored image,
and even the electric lamp on the dresser
all recall Motley’s Brown Girl After the
Bath (1931, cat. no. 28). Here, howev¬
er, the subject is interpreted as a glimpse
into the somewhat tawdry world of
cheap entertainment. These women
share little of the Brown Girl’s shy mod¬
esty. Patently indifferent to the open door
and the presence of a man just outside,
they are absorbed in passing the time
between acts. Painted in the same period
that saw such upbeat images as Barbecue
(1934, cat. no. 33) and Saturday Night
(1935, cat. no. 36), Between Acts offers
an unusual view of the unglamorous reali¬
ty behind some of the attractions of
Bronzeville night-life.

35

Between Acts, 1935

Oil on canvas, 39% x 32 in. (100 x 81.3
cm). Inscribed, lower right: A. J. Motley,
Jr. Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Terrence L.
Bailey.

Provenance: Archibald J. Motley, Jr.,
1935-74; Frederica Westbrooke, c.

1974- 87; Mr. and Mrs. Terrence L.
Bailey, 1987.

107

36

Saturday Night , 1935
Oil on canvas, 32 x 40 in. (81.3 x
101.6 cm). Inscribed, lower right: A. J.
Motley, Jr./ 35. Permanent Collection,
Howard University Gallery of Art,
Washington, D.C.

Saturday Night , executed during Motley’s
tenure at Howard University in 1935,
might have been inspired as much by the
black community of Washington, D.C.,
as by the Black Belt of the artist’s home¬
town. Painted almost entirely in boldly
contrasting tones of black, white, and
warm reds, Saturday Night is alive with
the excitement of nightlife. To the sounds
of the band in the far right background, a
dancer struts among the tables, entranc¬
ing most of the patrons. One of two
rushing waiters, the buttons of his white
jacket echoing the line of lights over the
bar, glances over to take in the perform¬
ance. We are drawn into the scene by
the rapt attention of the thin, bald-headed
man in the foreground, whose forgotten
but still smoking cigar is balanced precari¬
ously on the edge of his table. As the
dancer arches back, the forward-leaning
torso of the waiter behind her provides a
counterbalance to her movement, while
his lilted arm, and that of the drinking
patron seated between them, echo her
gesture. The tightly foreshortened per¬
spective of the composition, in which
bodies recede precipitously toward the
top of the image, suggests the pressing
din of conversation, clinking glasses, and
jazz music.

Provenance: Fort Huachuca, Arizona
WPA Allocation, c. 1941-47; Howard
University Gallery of Art, 1949.
Exhibitions: Texas, 1936; Maryland,
1939; Washington, D.C., 1945; Boston,
1975; New York, 1988.

References: Gaither, 1975; Locke, 1939;
Robinson, 1987; Dallas, 1936; Woodall,
1977, no. 69.

108

37

Progressive America, c. 1935

Oil on canvas, 27 x 63 in. (68.6 x 160

cm). Inscribed, lower left: A. J. Motley,

Jr./I 938. DuSable Museum of African
American History.

Progressive America is apparently a sketch
for a WPA mural project, but was not
executed as such. A symbolic representa¬
tion of American history, the composition
gives center stage to Christopher
Columbus, in an image borrowed from
the painting by John Vanderlyn in the
United States Capitol. Behind Columbus
stands a priest, Motley’s special acknowl¬
edgement of the importance of the
Roman Catholic church in the history
of European settlement in America.

A New England Pilgrim also appears.
These figures look toward the right,
where Abraham Lincoln stands before
the kneeling figure of a freed slave, a
common symbol of emancipation that
looks back to sculptor Thomas Ball’s
Emancipation Group of 1865. On the left,
a group of pioneers heads west, driving a
pair of oxen pulling a covered wagon.
The only women who appear are three
faceless ladies in nineteenth-century
dress who admire the locomotives, their
backs to the viewer.

The figures are surrounded by numer¬
ous symbols of Chicago’s particular con¬
tribution to the economic development
of the United States: old fasioned and
modern locomotives, an automobile, a
ship, and overhead, a blimp and an air¬
plane. Smokestacks, factory building, and
electrical power lines suggest the city’s
might in industry and communications.

In its stilted composition and its stock
images of historic figures and events,
Progressive America seems an attempt to
cater to conservative tastes and expecta¬
tions. While Motley’s ability in the field of
mural painting is evident from such works
as United States Mail, here he seems
uncomfortable with the constraints
imposed in the illustration of a grandiose
national historical theme.

Provenance: WPA c. 1935- ?; Agnes and
Ivin C. Mollison, ?— 1985; DuSable Mu¬
seum of African American History, 1985.
References: Woodall, 1977, no. 51.

09

38

The Liar, 1936

Oil on canvas, 32 x 36 in. (81.28 x
91.44 cm). Inscribed, lower right: A. J.
Motley, Jr.,/1936. Permanent collection,
Howard University Gallery of Art,
Washington, D.C.

Compositionally, The Liar is an exploded
version of The Plotters (1933, cat. no.

30). While the figures in the earlier work
form a closed circle around the white
table as they lean toward one another in
their conspiratorial whisperings, here the
figures are only loosely related in a scene
whose mood is humorous. The liar him¬
self, seated at the left, leans back and
away from his hearers as if swelling bodily
with the exaggeration of his story. His
seated companions, lips closed on
cigarettes, demonstrate their skepticism
by folded arms or one hand covering an
ear, even as their gazes and their atten¬
tion are locked on the storyteller. Leaning
on the back of a chair, a boy smiles with
delight at the tale, while glancing across
the table at the skeptics for agreement.
The liar has caught the attention of the
visor-wearing manager, in the right back¬
ground, who turns to take in the story
while a pool player remains intent on his
move.

In his Bronzeville scenes Motley typical¬
ly renders facial features sketchily, barely
suggesting eyes by dark smudges. In The
Liar, however, he delineates the faces of
the men with special attention to the
pointed glances exchanged between the
liar and his youthful ally on the left, and
the listeners on the right.

These two pairs are separated by more
than the expanse of white tablecloth
between them. The open gestures and
convivial smiles of the liar and boy, as well
as their relatively casual dress, contrast
with the reserved manner and sophisti¬
cated urban attire of the skeptics. With
these features, Motley may be suggesting
that the liar is a recent arrival to the nor¬
thern metropolis, whose sophisticates
meet his friendly loquacity with big-city
cynicism.

Provenance: Fort Huachuca, Arizona
WPA Allocation c. 1941-47; Permanent
Collection, Howard University Gallery of
Art, Washington, D.C., 1947.
Exhibitions: New York, 1988; Newark,
1990.

References: Centre Daily Times, 1972;
Porter, 1943; Woodall, 1977, no. 78.

10

39

The Picnic, 1936

Oil on canvas, 30 % x 36% in.

(76.5 x 91.7 cm). Inscribed, lower left:

A. J. Motley, Jr./I 936. Permanent
Collection, Howard University Gallery
of Art, Washington, D.C.

Two gaily-colored oversized umbrellas,
their frills echoed in the folds of the skirt
worn by the woman in the foreground,
dominate this crowded image of a picnic.
In the background a crooning musician
provides casual entertainment for the
picnickers, who seem more interested in
drinking than eating. The figures include
slender, flirtatious women and a variety
of men, from the taciturn slicker with his
hat concealing his eyes and a cigarette
dangling from his lips to the bald, fat
man who engages their mutual female
companion in conversation.

These are familiar inhabitants of
Motley’s Bronzeville. Indeed, they seem
to have strolled directly from its streets to
the South Side’s parks or Lake Michigan
shore, for their attire, from the men’s
suits and hats to the stylishly exaggerated
high heels of the woman in the fore¬
ground, all indicate an urban milieu. The
dog at lower left is similar to the one that
appears in Motley’s Cafe, Paris (1929, cat.
no. 22) and The Liar (1936, cat. no. 38);
the silver bowl of fruit at lower right
seems less a feature of the picnic itself
than an artistic signature that appears fre¬
quently in the artist’s work, including
A/lend/ng Socks (1924, cat. no. 10) of a
decade earlier.

Provenance: Fort Huachuca, Arizona
WPA Allocation, c. 1941-47; Howard
University, 1947.

Exhibitions: La Jolla, 1970; Pennsylvania,
1984; California, 1987.

References: Center Gallery, 1984;

Le Falle-Collins, 1987; Teilbet, 1970;
Washington Post, 1980; Woodall, 1977,
no. 76.

111

40

United States Mail sketch
Oil sketch, 13M x 12 in. (34.3 x
30.5 cm). Collection of Archie Motley
and Valerie Gerrard Browne.

During the mid-thirties, Motley joined
numerous other Illinois artists working
for federally sponsored art projects that
alleviated unemployment in the artistic
community while providing art for public
places. In the mural division of the Illinois
Art Project Motley competed for com¬
missions to decorate schools, post offices,
and other public facilities. These projects
demanded an art that was broadly didac¬
tic and yet accessible, both stylistically and
thematically, to a broad public. Competi¬
tion entries, in the form of highly finished,
small-scale studies, were exhibited publicly.
Motley submitted designs for numerous
mural projects and received three
commissions in Illinois.

For the Wood River, Illinois, post office
Motley chose the theme of the stage¬
coach mail because the site was an early
stop in U.S. mail service. His interpreta¬
tion emphasizes the danger and discom¬
fort of the stagecoach service. A clumsy,
heavily laden coach creaks up a steep
incline, its drivers and the armed guard
walking alongside bent with effort and
weariness. A mother and child riding
within suggest the precious nature of the
vehicle’s cargo, while a wanted poster on
the tree at right testifies to the hazards of
postal transportation in frontier America.

Changes made between the oil sketch
and the finished work, such as eliminating
the background scene and turning the
armed guard to face uphill, unify the com¬
position and enhance Motley’s theme of
the perils of early mail service.

Provenance: Archibald J. Motley, Jr.,

1935-81; Archie Motley, 1981-86;
Archie Motley and Valerie Gerrard
Browne, 1986.

I 12

41

United States Mail, 1936

Oil on canvas, 40 x 36 in. (101.6 x

91.4 cm). United States Postal Service.

Provenance: United States Postal
Service, 1936.

Exhibition: Chicago, 1935.

References: Tribune, 1935; Fine, 1973;
Mandel Brothers, c. 1935.

13

42

Africa, 1937

Oil on canvas, 30 x 40 in. (76.2 x 101.6
cm). Inscribed: A. J. Motley, Jr./I 937.
Collection of William Watson Hines III.

It had been a decade since Motley had
executed his five African works for his
New York exhibition when he again
took up the subject of his ancestral his¬
tory. Africa appears to be the first in the
series of images portraying the history
of African-Americans, which occupied
Motley during the mid-thirties. It portrays
a romanticized Africa in a pre-colonial
period when religious and social traditions
were as yet unaffected by European influ¬
ences. Before a wood dwelling, a circle of
men dance around a fire. Their armlets,
beaded necklaces, nose rings, and metal
spears, perhaps indicative of status or role
in the community, glint in the firelight. A
drummer at left accompanies the dancers;
behind, atotemic carved head seems to
guard the company.

It is not known whether Motley intend¬
ed to portray a specific people, religion,
or ceremony in Africa. In either case, he
chose to represent Africa in the stereo¬
typical terms most readily accessible to
both his black and white publics. Africa
thus underscores the prevailing percep¬
tion of the "Dark Continent," while illus¬
trating the importance of religious life,
particularly its ceremonial aspects, in
many indigenous African cultures.

Provenance: William Watson Hines III.
References: Woodall, 1977, no. 81

I 14

43

Carnival, 1937

Oil on canvas, 30 x 40 in. (76.2x 101.6 cm).
Inscribed, lower left: A. J. Motley, Jr/1937.
Permanent Collection, Howard Univer¬
sity Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

“FATTEST WOMAN IN [THE WORLD] 700
POUNDS,” “FLEA SHOW,” and “DANCING
every night” proclaim the banners on
three tents at a traveling carnival in this
scene rendered in soft tones of pink,
brown, and orange, with flashes of pur¬
plish blue. Under glowing street lamps in
early evening, pairs of lovers, a trio of
well-dressed ladies, a boy on a bicycle,
and others mingle in the expectation of
cheap entertainment. The foreground is
dominated by three odd figures: a bulky
woman, with her hair in a bun and her
back to the viewer; a short, fat man in a
red suit and a boater hat that reveals only
a broad smile; and a contrastingly tall, thin
accordion player. Of all these figures, only
the faces of the trio of women in the left
foreground are fully described. Through
their eyes Motley invites the viewer to
join this slightly fantastic scene, in which
the grotesque and the romantic are
mingled.

Provenance: Fort Huachuca, Arizona
WPA Allocation, c. 1941-47; Howard
University, 1947.

Exhibitions: Chicago, 1940; New York,
1988.

References: Robinson, 1988; South Side
Community Art Center, 1940; Woodall,
1977, no. 80.

is

44

The Jazz Singers , c. 1937

Oil on canvas, 32% x 42% in.

(81.6 x 107.3 cm). Inscribed, lower left:
A. J. Motley, Jr. Western Illinois University
Art Gallery/Museum, Macomb, Illinois.

The Jazz Singers was among the approxi¬
mately ten paintings Motley completed
for the easel division of the WPA. The
program provided each participating
painter with art materials and required
him or her to complete one canvas per
month for placement in public buildings.
Motley’s easel paintings were distributed
to libraries, park field houses, hospitals,
and other facilities in Chicago and in
nearby locations in Indiana.

Like The Liar (1936, cat. no. 38) and
The Plotters (1933, cat. no. 30), Motley’s
close-up view of five musicians in The Jazz
Singers is a crowded, seemingly casual
arrangement of figures in a barely defined
space. He places his singers for maximum
contrast, juxtaposing fat and thin figures,
light and dark complexions, even clenched
and open hands. Motley’s combination
of men dressed in work clothes and in
business suits in this extemporaneous
quintet suggests music’s universal appeal,
a socially inspiring theme that reflects the
democratic populism of WPA art.

I 16

Provenance: WPA, c. 1937-c. 1945;
Western Illinois University Art Gallery/
Museum, Macomb, Illinois, c. 1945.
Exhibitions: Springfield, 1983; Bellevue,
1985.

References: McKenna, 1983.

45

Lawn Party, c. 1937

Oil on canvas, 32 x 40 in. (81.3 x
101.6 cm). Inscribed: A. J. Motley, Jr./

[in pencil in later hand] 1927. Collection
of Denise LaMonte-Smith.

Although inscribed sometime after exe¬
cution with the date 1927, Lawn Party ,
like another work of the same title (cat.
no. 46), probably dates to the mid-thirties,
when Motley’s talent for out-of-door
genre scenes reached its fullest scope.

Both works feature lines of eccentric,
stylized trees and an interplay of brightly
tinted parasols. In this work, set in an
idyllic enclosed garden, a high jet of
water from the central fountain cools a
scattered group of light-skinned men and
women elegantly dressed in pale summer
colors. Only the fat shirt-sleeved man
in the foreground gives in to the heat,
fanning himself as he leans back in his
lawn chair with closed eyes. With its
fanciful architectural backdrop and pale,
cream-colored sky, the scene strikes a
dreamy note.

Provenance: Archibald J. Motley, Jr.,
c. 1937-81; Denise LaMonte-Smith,
1981.

17

Provenance: Archibald J. Motley, Jr.,
c. 1937-81; Judge Norma Y Dotson,
1981.

Exhibitions: Detroit, 1988; New York,
1988.

46

Lawn Party, c. 1937

Oil on canvas, 35 'A x 47 'A in.

(90.2 x 120.7 cm). Collection of Judge
Norma Y Dotson.

Motley’s Lawn Party is highly stylized. The
surreal trees, like lollipops descending in a
line from the right, are counterweighted
by the saucerlike disks of the parasols
held by solitary promenading ladies.

The foreground contrasts two couples: a
pair sits on the grass on the right, and, at
left, a man and woman separated by the
table and waiter, and are isolated by the
indifference conveyed by their poses. Toy
sailboats and their reflections meander on
the lake in the background.

47

Arrival at Chickasaw Bayou of the Slaves
of President Davis, c. 1938
Oil on board, 14 3 / x 39 'A in.

(37.5 x 100.3 cm). Inscribed, lower right:
A. J. Motley, Jr. Permanent Collection,
Howard University Gallery of Art,
Washington, D.C.

In a long, narrow painting Motley depicts
a procession of slaves freed during the
Civil War. Formerly the property of
Jefferson Davis, president of the Confed¬
erate States of America, these men,
women, and children make their way
from Jefferson’s Mississippi plantation to a
waiting steamboat at Chickasaw Bayou,
on the Mississippi River by Vicksburg,
under the guard of blue-coated Union
soldiers. The site may have had particular
interest for Motley, for just across the
river is his native state of Louisiana.

A few of the ex-slaves carry bags, but
most seem to have nothing more than
the clothes on their backs and the an¬
ticipation of opportunity as they march
toward a new life. The group includes
a variety of ages, coloration, dress, and
demeanor. Many of the men look like
farmers in their open-necked shirts and
shapeless hats, but there are also well-
dressed figures, such as the man in the
pale grey suit and hat and the woman in
the pink flounced dress and white turban
who carries a suitcase.

Motley painted this historical work
for the WPA. Its long, narrow format and
friezelike arrangement of figures suggest
that it may have been intended as a study
for a large-scale mural. Although probably
not specifically a part of the artist’s pro¬
jected cycle of paintings illustrating the
history of African-Americans, it demon¬
strates his continuing interest in the
subject.

Provenance: Fort Huachuca, Arizona
WPA Allocation c. 1941-47; F-loward
University Gallery of Art 1947.
Exhibitions: New York, 1988.
References: Woodall, 1977,, no. 68.

19

48

Lawd, Mah Man’s Leavin’, 1940

Oil on canvas, 30 x 40 in. (76.2 x 101.6
cm). Inscribed, lower right: A. J. Motley,
Jr./I 940. Saint Louis Art Museum, Gift of
the Federal Works Agency, Work Projects
Administration.

In this rare rural scene, Motley portrays
a farmer leaving for a distant though un¬
specified destination, perhaps a northern
city. By the eve of World War II, most
residents of Chicago’s Black Belt were
migrants from the South, and the war
triggered yet another influx. Motley here
imagines the wrenching effect of such
migration on family life. Laden with bag¬
gage, the departing man is arrested by
his wife’s mournful appeal to Heaven,
as, standing on the step of their shack,
she raises her arms in a praying gesture
and cries aloud. Between the pair, a child
seems to stare uncomprehendingly at her
father’s bundles, as farm animals surround
the group.

Motley’s style translates easily from the
realism of his urban scenes to this rustic
setting, which, in contrast to his serene
Arkansas landscapes of 1928, he renders
in exaggerated colors: the raw wood
buildings are lavender, and a turquoise
sky looks down on electric-green grass.
The intense color scheme of Lawd, Mah
Man’s Leavin’ further reinforces the trau¬
matic scene unfolding before the viewer.

120

Provenance: WPA Easel Program,

1940- ?; Saint Louis Art Museum, Gift of
the Federal Works Agency, Work Projects
Administration, c. 1945.

Exhibitions: Washington, D.C., 1940;
Illinois, 1983.

References: Aden, 1940; McKenna, 1983

49

Playground (Recess), c. 1940

Oil on masonite, 25% x 29% in. (64.1 x
74.3 cm). Inscribed, lower right:

Motley. Collection of Dr. Harmon and
Harriet Kelley.

Playground may be related to or a study
for Recreation (checklist no. 60), Motley’s
mural project for the Doolittle School at
535 East Thirty-fifth Street in Chicago.
Completed around 1940, the murals
have been covered over or destroyed, a
fate shared by much of the art created
under the sponsorship of the WPA.

Painted in a simple palette of green,
red, black, and white, Playground is remi¬
niscent of children’s art in its naive per¬
spective, high horizon, and simplistic
treatment of the figures. As its alternate
title implies, the image concerns the play¬
time of school children. Motley shows
youngsters on swings and a slide, running
and chatting, and generally expending in
frenetic physical and social activity ener¬
gies pent up during hours in the class¬
room. The foreground is dominated by a
pair of boys who face the viewer: the
white child with his arm around the
shoulder of the black youth. This depic¬
tion of interracial harmony is in accord
with the often idealistic tenor of WPA
mural art, in which children are typically
presented with optimistic innocence.

Provenance: Archibald J. Motley, Jr.,
c. 1940-50; Barnett-Aden, c. 1950-86;
Thurlow Tibbs Gallery, 1986-89;

Dr. Harmon and Harriet Kelly, 1989.

121

50

Sunday in the Park , 1941

Oil on canvas. 30 x 40 in. (76.2 x
101.6 cm). Inscribed: A. J. Motley,

Jr./I 941. South Side Community Art
Center.

In the distance in Sunday in the Park,
Chicago’s well-to-do ride their horses
past empty park benches. Radiating
from this background, parallel lines of
low hedges divide the space into narrow
bands. Each contains one of a varied
collection of urban dwellers pursuing a
Sunday activity, from newspaper reading
to romance. Though somewhat surreal in
its fanciful turquoise hues offset by touch¬
es of lavender, Sunday in the Park reveals
Motley’s sensitivity to the social realities of
modern, urban life. The band of hedges,
across which there is little communica¬
tion, seem to isolate the clusters of figures
within them. The painting’s title evokes
restand leisure, but the picture includes
three figures at work: the policeman, the
massive, uniformed black nanny pushing a
blonde baby in a carriage, and the balloon
seller in the background. Sunday in the
Park is a soothing scene whose buoyant
palette and leisure-life subject is reminis¬
cent of the work of French Fauve painter
Raoul Dufy (1877-1953).

Sunday in the Park was among the
paintings Motley created for the easel
division of the Illinois Art Project toward
the end of the program’s existence. It
was included in the exhibition "We Too
Look at America,’’ which opened with the
inauguration of the South Side Com¬
munity Art Center in May, 1941.

Provenance: South Side Community Art
Center, 1941.

Exhibitions: Chicago, 1940
References: WPA, 1943; Locke, 1940;
Woodall, 1977, no. 94.

122

SI

Nightlife, 1943

Oil on canvas, 36 x 47% in. (91.4 x
121.3 cm). Inscribed, lower right: A. J.
Motley, Jr./1943. Collection of Deborah
Gwin Hill.

Nightlife recalls Saturday Night (1935,
cat. no. 36) in its rich red-dominated
color scheme and in its composition, with
a bar at left and tables at right. In Nightlife
these elements, and the figures of dan¬
cers and a waiter between them, com¬

prise a series of three diagonal bands that
plunge toward the dancing crowd in the
right distance. A lively tune blasts from the
lighted jukebox at the right, and a dancing
couple occupies the composition’s center.
The woman looks toward the left, where
a blue-suited man gestures toward her as
a woman in green seated at the bar bold¬
ly observes. Motley leaves the viewer free
to speculate on the stories behind these
figures and their interrelated gestures.

Instead, Nightlife, one of Motley’s busiest
scenes, emphasizes the spirit with which
residents of Chicago’s Black Belt put the
cares of the straightened wartime econo¬
my temporarily behind them.

Provenance: Archibald J. Motley, Jr.,
1943-?; Costella M. Gwin, 7-1985;
Deborah Gwin Hill, 1985.

123

52

Christmas Eve , c. 1945
Oil on canvas, 24 x 30 % in. (60.96 x
77.2 cm). Inscribed, lower right: A. J.
Motley, Jr. DuSable Museum of African
American History.

In this Chicago street scene, Motley
portrays the bustle of a holiday evening as
pedestrians, bent against the cold, hurry
along the snow-covered street past a
bell-ringing figure dressed as Santa Claus.
Some people clutch presents, and a man
in the left foreground carries a Christmas
tree as a boy pulls another child on a sled
at the right. A shop in the left background
advertises Christmas trees for sale, while
toward the right a tall tree, its boughs
laden with snow, glows with electric lights
like the pinpoints of stars in the night sky
above.

Although Motley has carefully num¬
bered two of the buildings in the back¬
ground, the specific locale of the scene is
unknown. Most of the figures appear to
be white, but in many details Christmas
Eve resembles Motley’s scenes of
Bronzeville’s streets. In particular, the
house in the center background is closely
based on the Motley family home at 350
West Sixtieth Street, although here it
bears the number 936.

Motley’s motive in painting Christmas
Eve, one of his rare portrayals of white
Chicago, is unknown. Along with Extra
Paper (1946, cat. no. 53) of about the
same date, it may represent the artist’s
attempt to attract a wider audience by
moving beyond specifically Black Belt
subject matter.

Provenance: Max Robinson, ?—1987;
DuSable Museum of African American
History, 1987.

Exhibitions: New York, 1988.

124

53

Extra Paper (State Street Scene), 1946

Watercolor on paper, 17K x 24 in.

(45 x 61 cm.) Inscribed, lower left:

A. J. Motley, Jr./46. DuSable Museum
of African American History.

While the subject of the special newspa¬
per edition that gives Extra Paper its title is
unidentified, it has caught the attention of
several passers-by in this unspecified State
Street scene. As a newspaper vendor
hands papers to a tall, nattily dressed man
and a woman in a green dress, behind
them two men are already absorbed in
the extra edition. Around them swirls the
confusion of the urban scene, a mass of
pedestrians and vehicles before a back¬
drop of buildings.

Like Christmas Eve of about the same
date (c. 1945, cat. no. 52), Extra Paper is
an unusual work for Motley in its inclusion
of numerous white figures. African-
Americans are a minority in this scene,
and Motley marginalizes them to suggest
the social exclusion of his people within
Chicago’s ethnic mix. The black newspa¬
per seller is a stunted, childlike figure,
who is dwarfed by his adult customers;
the fat, bald man reading the newspaper
and the couple crossing the street are
faceless, their backs to the viewer.

Both the painting’s subject and its medi¬
um of watercolor on paper—unusual
materials for Motley—suggest that he
painted it expressly for the Chicago
Newspaper Guild’s 1946 exhibition and
annual yearbook.

Provenance: Archibald J. Motley, Jr.,

1946- ?; DuSable Museum of African
American History.

Exhibitions: Chicago, 1946; New York,
1988.

References: Chicago Newspaper Guild,

1946; Price, 1980.

125

54

Casey and Mae in the Street, 1948

Oil on canvas, 32 x 39 'A in.

(81.3 x 100.3 cm). Inscribed, lower right:
A. J. Motley, Jr./I 948. Collection of Judge
Norma Y Dotson and Mrs. Norma
V La Monte.

Similar in palette and subject to Gett/n'
Religion (1948, cat. no. 55) of the same
year, Casey and Mae features not a street
preacher but a street entertainer. Accom¬
panied by his performing chickens, the
toothless, eccentric Casey Jones hustled a
living on Chicago’s busy thoroughfares by
singing, dancing, and playing instruments,
as well as selling food and talking to the
crowd. In this picture few pay him much
notice amidst the swirling crowd, whose
nonchalance is exemplified by the fat cigar-
smoker standing under the lamppost in
the foreground, his hands in his pockets.

In the background Motley depicts Jack’s
Barber Shop, a business that actually
operated in the Black Belt, though it was
not, as here, located next door to the
Motley home. The house itself, numbered
358, is pressed into the picture at a crazy
angle as if echoing both the oddity of
Casey Jones and the atmosphere of
excited unreality pervading nighttime
street life.

Provenance: Archibald J. Motley, Jr.,

1948-81; Judge Norma Y. Dotson and
Mrs. Norma V La Monte, 1981.
Exhibitions: Detroit, 1988; New York,
1988.

References: Hunter, 1988; Robinson,
1987.

26

55

Gettin Religion, 1948

Oil on canvas, 3 I Ve x 39X in. (80.96 x 99.6
cm). Inscribed, lower right: A. J. Motley,

Jr./I 948. Collection of Archie Motley and
Valerie Gerrard Browne.

An impassioned sidewalk evangelist
preaches over the heads of musicians and
red-capped women who help spread his
message of salvation and gather donations.
While one man reaches into his pocket
in response, others, like the hatted man
facing the viewer in the picture’s center
and the pair of lovers at the left, are aloof
urban sophisticates oblivious to spiritual
appeals. The preacher’s emotional
exuberance exemplifies the style of
worship found in Bronzeville’s sidewalk
and storefront churches, where recent
immigrants continued southern spiritual
traditions.

The composition of Gettin’ Religion,
from its placement of figures in the jum¬
bled crowd to the arrangement of build¬
ings in the background, closely parallels an
otherwise quite different street view by
Motley, his Christmas Eve (c. 1945, cat.
no. 45). Though both are night-time
scenes with religious references, the earli¬
er work portrayed white Chicago in win¬
ter, while Gettin’ Religion depicts Bronze-
ville on an evening when the hot weather
has drawn residents to their windows and
into the streets. In the center background,
a wo-man and a boy, perhaps the young
Motley himself, watch the street spectacle
from the front porch of their frame house,
which bears a number corresponding to
the Motleys’ address at 350 West
Sixtieth Street.

Gettin’ Religion exemplifies Motley’s
tendency, from the early forties onward,
to saturate his canvases in one strong,
dominant color relieved by flashes of
contrasting tints. The rich blue of this
painting became his characteristic color,
one that he used throughout his final
work, The First One Hundred Years
(c. 1963-72, cat. no. 69) and in his late
alterations to early works such as Uncle
Bob (1928, cat. no. 20).

Provenance: Archibald J. Motley, Jr.,

1948-81; Archie Motley 1981 -86;

Archie Motley and Valerie Gerrard
Browne, 1986.

Exhibitions: Chicago, 1949; Springfield,
1949.

References: Locke, 1939; Woodall, 1977,
no. 95.

27

56

Bronzeville at Night, 1949

Oil on canvas, 32 x 39M in. (81.3 x 100.3
cm). Inscribed, lower right: A. J. Motley,
Jr./I 949. Collection of Camille O. and
William H. Cosby, Jr.

bronzeville at Night, Motley’s last record¬
ed Chicago street scene, recalls Black Belt
(1934, cat. no. 32), perhaps his first such
work. Though separated by almost fifteen
years, the two paintings, both set at
evening time, share a compositional
formula that features a receding street
with automobiles, brightly lit storefronts
including a restaurant, light flooding from
a high street lamp, and two of Motley’s
favorite figures: the fat man in shirtsleeves
and the old, bent man with a cane.

But Bronzeville at Night differs from the
earlier painting in some key respects.
Taking in the view from a high vantage
point, Motley here shuts us into a con¬
crete world with no horizon, a street in
which passersby and somewhat mon¬
strous cars seem perpetually in danger of
collision. We know that this is an evening
scene only because of the glow of the
street light and storefront windows and
the painting’s title, for instead of the starry
night skies of such related images as
Genin' Religion (1948, cat. no. 55),
Bronzeville at Night shows an urban land¬
scape bounded by streets and buildings.

However, the sense of the street as an
urban canyon is challenged in this painting
by the sociability of the figures and the
nature of the businesses pictured. On the
street corner to the right, a bar beckons
with signs for Blatz Beer and wine, and
on the left, Jack’s Chicken Shack offers
southern specialties. The crowd includes
couples and pairs, as well as individuals
who seem isolated amidst the bustle.
Above all, Bronzeville at Night conveys
the sometimes bewildering speed and
variety of the Black Belt’s street scene.

Provenance: Archibald J. Motley, Jr.,

1949-77; Camille O. and William H.
Cosby, Jr., 1977.

Exhibitions: Los Angeles, 1976
References: Woodall, 1977, no. 96.

129

Although it does incorporate recognizable
forms-a nude female figure beneath an
overhead light, and two windows-it is
otherwise an abstract composition of
bubblelike spheres juxtaposed against flat
facets that shade from intense hues of
brilliant color into almost pure light.

Executed toward the end of the artist’s
career, Nude is less the signal of a new
direction in Motley’s art than a distillation
of long-held artistic ideals. The nude
female, the painting’s most prominent

feature, seems to stand for Motley’s life¬
long interest in nude painting. Portrayed
as if posing in the artist’s studio, with
drapery on her arm and standing under a
bare light fixture, she recalls the fact that
Motley pictured himself in the act of
painting a nude in his 1933 self-portrait,
alternately called Myse/f at Work
(cat. no. 3 I).

The prismlike geometric construction
of Nude looks back to the work of such
American pioneers of modernism as
Lionel Feininger (1871 -56), the synchro-
nist painters Stanton McDonald-Wright
(1890-73) and Morgan Russell (1886-53),
and the Chicago modernist William S.
Schwartz (1896-77), Motley’s friend
from his student days. But Nude also
serves as a graphic demonstration of
Motley’s own approach to painting, one
that he had absorbed during his training
at the Art Institute. The artist conceived
his paintings in terms of abstract geomet¬
ric shapes and color arrangements, 10 an
approach that is evident in the strong
sense of structural integrity that underlies
his otherwise realist paintings. In Nude,
then, Motley has assembled the basic ele¬
ments of his art. Though apparently
anomalous in his oeuvre, the painting is a
graphic credo that demonstrates the con¬
sistency of Motley’s artistic approach and
ideals over the course of his career.

Provenance: Archibald J. Motley, Jr.,

1952—c. 1955; Mrs. Flossie Moore, c.
1955-90; Charlotte C. Duplessis, 1990.

57

Nude, 1952

Oil on canvas, 30% x 20% in. (76.5 x
51.1 cm). Inscribed, lower right: A. J.
Motley, Jr./I 952. Collection of Charlotte
C. Duplessis.

Nude exemplifies the spirit of experimen¬
tation in Motley’s late work. It appears to
be his only painting in sympathy with the
modernist rejection of traditional modes
of representation.

130

58

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Jose With a Serape , 1953

Oil on canvas, 26 !4 x 22 'A in.

(66.3 x 56.5 cm). Inscribed, lower left:
Motley/Mexico 53. Collection of Archie
Motley and Valerie Gerrard Browne.

While in Mexico, Motley returned to
portraiture, a genre in which he had not
worked since the early thirties. In addition
to this work, he painted Seri Indian Woman
(checklist no. 70). The two portraits are
both dated 1953 and are of the same
dimensions, suggesting that Motley
thought of them as a pair.

Jose worked for the artist’s nephew
Willard, with whom Motley lived during
his stay in Mexico. In an unlocated paint¬
ing, Jose Watering the Garden (c. 1952-53,
checklist no. 66), Motley portrayed him at
work in Willard’s garden. In this portrait,
Jose is shown in typical Mexican dress: a
loose deep-blue shirt with red bow, a
broad-brimmed hat, and a colorful woven
serape thrown over his shoulder. Holding
a smoking cigarette in one hand, he leans
slightly to the left, fixing the viewer with a
somewhat uncommunicative stare.

Ji.

Provenance: Archibald J. Motley, Jr.,
1953-81; Archie Motley, 1981 -86;
Archie Motley and Valerie Gerrard
Browne, 1986.

References: Woodall, 1977, no. 97.

3

59

Another Mexican Baby , c. 1953-4
Oil on woven petate mat, 35 'A x 67 in.
(89.5 x 170.2 cm). Collection of Archie
Motley and Valerie Gerrard Browne.

While in Mexico Motley executed a num¬
ber of paintings on large woven mats of
petate grass, which he obtained locally. In
these works the artist treats Mexican sub¬
jects in a manner that recalls his designs
for WPA murals in their simple, friezelike
compositions and generalized figures.

Another Mexican Baby demonstrates the
influence of Mexican social realist art, with
its serious social themes and powerfully
rendered figures. The painting’s title,
sardonically evocative of bureaucratic
indifference, directs our attention to the
childsize casket held by the father leading
the procession with his grieving wife.

This funeral parade is not only a symbol
of Mexico’s high rate of infant mortality,
but an ironic comment on the anonymity
of poverty.

Provenance: Archibald J. Motley, Jr.,
1953-81; Archie Motley, 1981-86;
Archie Motley and Valerie Gerrard
Browne, 1986.

132

60

Roadside Conference, 1953
Oil on canvas, l6 3 /x I I in.

(42.6 x 28 cm). Inscribed, lower left:
Motley/53. Atlanta University Collection
of Afro-American Art at Clark Atlanta
University.

Provenance: Archibald J. Motley, Jr.,
1953-60; Judge Irvin C. Mollison,
1960-85; Atlanta University Collection
of Afro-American Art at Clark Atlanta
University, 1985.

133

61

Calle del Padre, 1957

Oil on canvas, 12 x 9 in. (30.5 x

29.9 cm). Inscribed, lower left:

Motley. 57. Private Collection.

Provenance: Archibald J. Motley, Jr.,

1957- ?; Judge Irvin C. and Agnes
Mollison; Art & Artifacts Division,
Schomburg Center for Research in Black
Culture, The New York Public Library,
Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations;
Margaret Burroughs; Caribe Art Center;
Private Collection, 1987.

134

I 3 5

Provenance: Archibald J. Motley, Jr.,

1957- ?; Agnes and Irvin C. Mollison;
Margaret Burroughs; Evan-Tibbs Gallery,
?— 1988; Kenkeleba Gallery, 1988.

62

Callejon del Beso, 1957

Oil on canvas 12 x 9 in. (30.5 x 29.9 cm).
Inscribed, lower right: Motley/1957.
Kenkeleba Gallery.

63

Guanajuato, Mexico, 1957
Oil on canvas, 9 x 12 in. (22.9 x 30.5
cm). Inscribed, lower left: Motley 57.
Collection of Charlotte C. Duplessis.

Motley’s small views of places he visited
in Mexico were his first work in the genre
of landscape painting since his images of
Arkansas scenery painted in 1928.

Closely based on tinted postcards of the
sites, Motley’s Mexican landscapes are
themselves like postcards recording the
artist’s nostalgic memory of his Mexican
sojourn. Instead of the deep, rich palette
and frequent nighttime setting of his late
Bronzeville scenes, Motley worked in
bright pastel colors and daytime effects
inspired by Mexico’s bright natural light
and the sunny hues of its architecture.

Guanajuato, Mexico is typical of
Motley’s Mexican landscapes: Market
Scene, Mexico (1957, cat. no. 64), San
Miguel de Allende (1958, cat. no. 65),
and Near San Miguel de Allende (1958,
cat. no. 66). He renders a collection of
buildings and walls as simple geometric
shapes in bright pastels.

The unvarnished surface of the canvas
replicates the matte surface of the adobe
structures. The lone small figure of a
woman is represented in cursory fashion,
dwarfed by stylized palm trees and cactus
that lend this scene a dreamlike air.

Provenance: Archibald J. Motley, Jr.,
1957-78; Charlotte C. Duplessis, 1978.

136

138

San Miguel de Allende, 1957
Oil on canvas, 12 x 9 in. (22.9 x 30.5 cm).
Inscribed, lower left: Motley/57. Collection
of Bernice L. Shields.

Provenance: Archibald J. Motley, Jr.,
1957-62; Father Edward J. Laramie,
1962- ?; Bernice L. Shields.

Near San Miguel de Allende, Mexico ,

1958

Oil on canvas, 9 x 12 in. (22.9 x 30.5 cm).
Inscribed, lower left: Motley 58. Collection
of Frederica Westbrooke.

Provenance: Archibald J. Motley, Jr.,
1958-62; Frederica Westbrooke, 1962.

139

67

Barbecue, I960

Oil on canvas, 30M x 40 in. (77.7 x
101.6 cm). Inscribed, lower left: Motley/

1960. Collection of Archie Motley and
Valerie Gerrard Browne.

In title and subject this work recalls
Motley’s Barbecue of about 1934 (cat.
no. 33). Both depict gatherings of varied
Bronzeville types at circular tables set
under starry night skies, across which
strings of electric lights flicker. In contrast
to the more urban milieu of the earlier
painting, here Motley suggests proximity
to water, perhaps the Lake Michigan
shore, in the bathing suit worn by at least
one of the female figures-the woman in
green in the right foreground: a beach ball
rests beneath her chair.

Dominating the composition are the
standing chef in a tall white hat, who
cooks at the open grill, and the familiar
figure of the fat, bald man looming large
in the left foreground. A jukebox in the
background provides music for dancing
couples, but the scene focuses on clusters
of conversing figures at the tables. Motley
includes a figure suggesting himself: a
slender, light-skinned man whose goatee
and open-necked shirt recall Motley’s
1933 Self-Portrait (cat. no. 31).

Provenance: Archibald J. Motley, Jr.,
1960-81; Archie Motley, 1981 -86;
Archie Motley and Valerie Gerrard
Browne, 1986.

References: Woodall, 1977, no. 101

61

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140

68

Hot Rhythm, 1961
Oil on canvas, 40 x 48% in. (101.6 x
122.9 cm). Inscribed, lower right:
Motley/61. Collection of Archie Motley
and Valerie Gerrard Browne.

In this late work Motley returns to the
cabaret scene, the source of his earliest
depictions of black life in Bronzeville and
Paris. Hot Rhythm, with its musical theme
and its almost crushing mass of figures
and instruments pressed up against the
picture plane, recalls Blues of 1929 (cat.
no. 21). But here the band and entertain¬
ers, rather than the patrons, are given
center stage. Four identical female dancers,
clad in scanty green metallic outfits and
feather headdresses, raise their arms as
they strut along the floor before a seated
audience. The band members, their hair
slicked into place, are dressed in formal
suits as they blast forth the sounds of
hot jazz.

Hot Rhythm resonates with the pulsat¬
ing excitement of its musical subject, yet it
also seems to hold the viewer at an aloof
distance. Motley shows almost all of the
figures-whether musicians, dancers, or
patrons-wifh their eyes averted in self-
possessed reserve. Only two, somewhat
peculiar, figures actually look toward the
viewer: a spectacled man who peers at
us over the shoulder of the leftmost
dancer, his face partly hidden, and the
beret-wearing trumpet player, whose
dark skin and rotundity identify him as the
fat man who haunts Motley’s Bronzeville
images.

Provenance: Archibald J. Motley, Jr.,
1961-81; Archie Motley, 1981-86;
Archie Motley and Valerie Gerrard
Browne, 1986.

References: Woodall, 1977, no. 103

4

69

The First One Hundred Years: He
Amongst You Who is Without Sin Shall
Cast the First Stone: Forgive Them Father
For They Know Not What They Do,

c. 1963-72

Oil on canvas, 48% x 40% in. (124.2 x
103.5 cm). Collection of Archie Motley
and Valerie Gerrard Browne.

Possibly the last painting on which Motley
worked, The First One Hundred Years is a
montage of symbols describing the histo¬
ry of black-white relations in America in
the century following the abolition of
slavery. Motley characterizes the South as
a derelict gothic mansion on which hangs
the Confederate flag. Around it in a sur¬
real landscape are emblems of racial
oppression and racist stereotypes, from
a white-robed Ku Klux Klansman to a
mule and plow. The work is saturated
with Motley’s trademark deep blue, against
which flashes of pure red glow like fresh
blood.

In earlier works, from Jockey Club of
I929 (cat. no. 24) to the 1941 Sunday in
the Park (cat. no. 50), Motley had com¬
mented obliquely on relations between
the races. The First One Hundred Years is
his only overtly political statement.
Resonating with the political upheaval and
civil strife of the sixties, it demonstrates
stylistic and thematic affinities with the
politically charged outdoor murals that
appeared in urban sites during that era.

Yet it is also an intensely personal state¬
ment, which Motley reworked obsessive¬
ly over almost a decade.

For the lynched man near the picture’s
center, for instance, the artist may have
recalled the cover photograph of a French
magazine he had saved from his Paris so¬
journ in 1929-30. Near the bottom edge
of the painting he pictured a figurine of a
woman, an object in his own collection
that he also incorporated into his 193 I
Portrait of a Woman on a Wicker Settee
(cat. no. 29) and his Self-Portrait of 1933
(cat. no. 3 I). And Motley’s religious faith
informs the work through details like
the broken church window at upper
left, the three crucifixes in the far dis¬
tance, the Trinity-like floating faces of
John F Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr.,
and Abraham Lincoln, and the title.

This passionate painting, in which Motley
made a radical artistic break from his life’s
work, sums up personal history as well as
national tragedy.

Provenance: Archibald J. Motley, Jr.,
1963-81; Archie Motley 1981-86;
Archie Motley and Valerie Gerrard
Browne, 1986.

References: Woodall, 1977, no. 104.

143

I .“How I Solve My Painting Problems,”
1947, 5. Harmon Foundation Papers,
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.;
copy in Archibald J. Motley, Jr., Papers,
Archives and Manuscripts Collection,
Chicago Historical Society.

2. Motley, “How I Solve My Painting
Problems,” 5.

3. “Biography by Willard,” by Willard
Motley, n.d., Archibald J. Motley, Jr.,
Papers, Archives and Manuscripts
Collection, Chicago Historical Society.

4. Motley, “Answers to Farrington-Martin
Questionnaire,” by Archibald J. Motley,
Jr., Feb. 16, 1976, and Motley, "How I
Solve My Painting Problems,” 3.

5. "Interview with Archibald Motley,” by
Dennis Barrie, January 23,1978, [I].
Archibald J. Motley, Jr., Papers, Archives
and Manuscripts Collection, Chicago
Historical Society.

6. Motley, “How I Solve My Painting
Problems,” 3-4.

7. Barrie, “Interview,” [24-25].

8. Richard J. Powell, The Blues Aesthetic:
Black Culture and Modernism (exh. cat.)
(Washington, D.C.: Washington Project
for the Arts, 1989), [26-27].

9. Motley, “How I Solve My Painting
Problems,” 2-3.

10. Motley, “How I Solve My Painting
Problems.”

144

Checklist of Other Known Works

This is not a complete or final list of Archibald
J. Motley, Jr.’s, works of art, and information
on many of art works listed below is incom¬
plete, unknown, or unverified. It is included in
this exhibition catalogue to stimulate further
research to add to the body of knowledge
about the artist’s works.

1. Knitting Girl, c. 1920

Oil on canvas, 21 x 3 I in. (53.3 x 78.7 cm).
Collection of Archie Motley and
Valerie Gerrard Browne.

2. Nude Reclining, c. 1920

Oil on canvas, 26 x 44 in. (66 x I I 1.8 cm).
Collection of Archie Motley and Valerie
Gerrard Browne.

3. Black and Tan Cabaret, 1921

Oil on canvas. Location unknown.
Exhibitions: Chicago, 1922; New York,

1928. References: Art Institute, 1922; New
Gallery, 1928; Woodall, 1977, no. 4.

4 .Syncopation, 1924

Oil on canvas. Location unknown.

Exhibitions: Chicago, 1925; Chicago, 1926;
Copenhagen, 1930; Chicago (Woman’s
Club), 1933; Chicago (Knights of Pythias),
1933. References: American-Scandinavian
Foundation, 1930; Art Institute, 1925; ISFA,
1926, Powell, 1989.

5 . A Mulattress, 1924

Oil on canvas, 34 x 29 in. (86.4 x 73.7 cm).
Inscribed, lower right: A. J. Motley, Jr.

Location unknown. Provenance: Carl W.
Hamilton 1928-? Exhibitions: Chicago, 1925;
Springfield, 1926; Chicago, 1926; Chicago
(No-Jury), 1926; New York, 1932.
References: Art Institute, 1925; Brooklyn
Museum, 1932; IFSA, 1926; No-Jury, 1926,
Woodall, 1977, no. 9.

6. Portrait of My Brother-in-Law [Charles
Worthington], c. 1926

Oil on canvas. Collection of Judge Norma Y.
Dotson. Exhibitions: Chicago, 1927.
References: No-Jury, 1927.

7. Sketch-Farmyard, c. 1926

Location unknown. Exhibitions: Chicago,

1927. References: No-Jury, 1927.

8. Stomp, 1927

Oil on canvas. Inscribed, lower right: A. J.
Motley, Jr./I 927. Collection of Camille O. and
William H. Cosby, Jr. Provenance: Archibald
J. Motley, Jr., 1927-77; Camille O. and
William H. Cosby, Jr., 1977. Exhibitions:

New York, 1928; Chicago, 1929; Springfield,
1971. References: Art Institute, 1929; New
Gallery, 1928; Woodall, 1977, no. 12.

9. Town of Hope, 1927

Oil on canvas, 38 1/2 x 31 1/2 in. (100.3 x 80.3
cm). Inscribed, lower left: A. J. Motley,

Jr./I 927. Location unknown. Provenance:

Carl W. Hamilton, 1928-?; Larry Gross; Frank
Stewart/Onyx Gallery, ?— 1974; Johnson
Publications, 1974. Exhibitions: New York,
1932. References: Heilman, 1932.

10. Waganda [Uganda] Woman's Dream,

1927

Oil on canvas. Inscribed, lower right: A. J.
Motley/1927. Location unknown. Exhibitions:
New York, 1928; Chicago (Woman’s Club),

1933; Chicago (Knights of Pythias), 1933.
References: New Gallery, 1928; Woodall,
1977, no. 14.

I I. Aline, An Octoroon, c. 1927

Oil on canvas. Location unknown.

Provenance: Ralph Pulitzer, 1928-?
Exhibitions: New York, 1928. References:
New Gallery, 1928; Woodall, 1977, no. 21.

12. Barbecue In A Garden, c. 1927

Location unknown. Exhibitions: New York,
1928. References: New Gallery, 1928.

13. Blaine, A Convalescent, c. 1927

Location unknown. Provenance: Carl
Hamilton, 1928-? Exhibitions: New York,
1928. References: New Gallery, 1928;
Woodall, 1977, no. 20.

14. Carnival, c. 1927

Location unknown. Exhibitions: New York,
1928; References: New Gallery, 1928;
Woodall, 1977, no. 25.

15. A Colored Man, c. 1927

Location unknown. Exhibitions: New York,
1928. References: New Gallery, 1928;
Woodall, 1977, no. 22.

THE ART OF ARCHIBALD J. MOTLEY, JR.

16. Devil-Devils, c. 1927

Location unknown. Exhibitions: New York,
1928; References: New Gallery, 1928;
Woodall, 1977, no. 16.

17. Head of A Quadroon, c. 1927

Location unknown. Provenance: Mrs. T.
Murray, 1928-?: Exhibitions: New York,
1928. References: New Gallery, 1928;
Woodall, 1977, no. 19.

18. In A Garden, c. 1927

Location unknown. Exhibitions: New York,
1928. References: New Gallery, 1928;
Woodall, 1977, no. 24.

19. Interior in Cool and Warm Light, c. 1927

Location unknown. Exhibitions: New York,
1928. References: New Gallery, 1928;
Woodall, 1977, no. 26.

20. Omen, c. 1927

Location unknown. Provenance: Carl
Hamilton, 1928-? Exhibitions: New York,
1928. References: New Gallery, 1928;
Woodall, 1977, no. 23.

21. On a Pier, c. 1927

Location unknown. Exhibitions: Chicago,
1928; Springfield, 1929. References: IWAC,
1928; IAFA, 1929.

22. Parade, c. 1927

Location unknown. Exhibitions: New York,
1928. References: New Gallery, 1928;
Woodall, 1977, no. 27.

23. Picnic at the Grove, c. 1927

Location unknown. Provenance: Carl
Hamilton, 1928-? Exhibitions: New York,
1928; New York, 1929. References: New
Gallery, 1928.

24. The Road to Rehabilitation, c. 1927
Location unknown. Exhibitions: New York,
1928. References: New Gallery, 1928;
Woodall, 1977, no. 18.

25. Spell of the Voodoo, c. 1927
Location unknown. Exhibitions: New York,
1928. References: New Gallery, 1928;
Woodall, 1977, no. 17.

26. Waganda [Uganda] Charm-Maker,

c. 1927

Oil on canvas. 39 1/2 x 45 in. (100.3 x I 14.3
cm). Inscribed, lower left. Location unknown.
Provenance: Carl W. Hamilton, 1928-?
Exhibitions: New York, 1928; New York,
1932. References: Brooklyn Museum, 1932;
New Gallery, 1928; Woodall, 1977, no. 13.

27. Field Hands Returning Home, 1928

Location unknown. Exhibitions: Chicago
(Knights of Pythias), 1933.

28. Picking Cotton, c. 1928

Location unknown. References: Woodall,
1977, no. 31,46.

29. The Flight, c. 1929

Location unknown. Exhibitions: Chicago
(Woman’s Club), 1933; Chicago (Knights of
Pythias), 1933. References: Jewett, 1933.

30. Martinique Dancer, c. 1929-30

Oil on canvas. 39 I /4 x 32 in. (99.7 x 81.3
cm). Location unknown. Exhibitions:
Chicago, 1931; Chicago (Merchandise Mart),
1931; Washington, D.C., 1932; Chicago
(Kroch’s) 1933; Chicago (Olivet Baptist
Church), 1933; Chicago (Knights of Pythias),
1933; Chicago (Visitor’s), 1933. References:
Art Institute, 1931; IAFA, 1931; Jewett, 1933;
Woodall, 1977, no. 36.

3 I. Martinique Youth, c. 1929-30
Location unknown. Exhibitions: Harmon,
1931. References: Woodall, 1977, no. 37.

32. Refugees (Veterans), c. 1929-30
Location unknown. Exhibitions: Chicago
(Woman’s Club), 1933; Chicago (Knights of
Pythias), 1933. References: Jewett, 1933;
Woodall, 1977, no. 42

33. Senegalese, c. 1929-30

Oil on canvas. Collection of Camille O. and
William H. Cosby, Jr. Provenance: Archibald
J. Motley, Jr.; Oscar Stadeker; Camille O. and
William H. Cosby, Jr. Exhibitions: Chicago,
1931; Washington, D.C., 1932; Chicago
(Visitor’s), 1933; Chicago (Olivet Baptist
Church), 1933. References: Art Institute,

1931; Woodall, 1977, no. 35.

34. Sharks (Playing Poker), c. 1929-30
Inscribed, lower right: A. J. Motley, Jr.

Location unknown. Exhibitions: Chicago
(Woman’s Club), 1933; Chicago (Knights of
Pythias), 1933; Washington, D.C., 1933.
References: Art Institute, 1933; National
Gallery, 1933; Woodall, 1977, no. 43, 61.

35. Spirituals, c. 1929-30

Location unknown. Exhibitions: Chicago
(Knights of Pythias), 1933.

36. Portrait of My Mother, c. 1930

Oil on canvas. Location unknown.

Exhibitions: Dallas, 1935; New York, 1931;
Chicago, 1932; Chicago (Woman’s Club),

1933; Chicago, (Knights of Pythias), 1933;
Chicago (Robinson), 1933; References:
Barnett, 1933; Art Institute, 1932; Studio
Gallery, 1933; Woodall, 1977, no. 39.

37. The Final Consolation, c. 1932

32 x 40 in (81.3 x 101.6 cm). Inscribed, lower
left: A. J. Motley, Jr. Location unknown.
Provenance: George S. Heilman, c. 1932-?
Exhibitions: New York, 1932. References:
Heilman, 1932.

38. Picking Cotton, c. 1933

Location unknown. Provenance: WPA, c.

1933- ? References: Woodall, 1977, no. 46.

39. Baseball in the Schoolyard, c. 1934

Location unknown. Provenance: WPA, c.

1934- ? References: Woodall, 1977, no. 49
or 50.

146

CHECKLIST OF OTHER KNOWN WORKS

40. Negro Dancers (The Dancers), c. 1934
Location unknown. Provenance: WPA, c.

1934-? References: Woodall, 1977, no. 47,
48.

41 . Negro Slaves at Work (Plantation Days),

c. 1934

Location unknown. References: Woodall,
1977, no. 55.

42. Reception, c. 1934

Location unknown. Provenance: WPA, c.

1934- ? References: Woodall, 1977, no. 60.

43. A Surprise in Store, c. 1934

Oil on canvas, 36 x 40 in. (91.4 x 101.6 cm)
(framed). Location unknown. Exhibitions:
Copenhagen, 1930; Chicago, 1934.
References: Century of Progress, 1934;
Woodall, 1977, no. 63.

44. Frederick Douglass, c. 1935
Location unknown. References: Woodall,
1977, no. 56.

45. Funeral Scene, c. 1935
Location unknown.

46. Mural for Douglass Memorial Hall, c.

1935- 36 Commissioned for Howard
University, c. 1935-36-? (destroyed).
References: Woodall, 1977, no. 93.

47. Marijuana Joint , c. 1935-36
Location unknown. Provenance: WPA, c.

1935-36-? References: Woodall, 1977, no.
72.

48. Massacre, c. 1935-36

Location unknown. References: Woodall,
1977, no. 74.

49. Street Scene, c. 1935-36
Location unknown. References: Woodall,
1977, no. 70.

50. Band Playing, c. 1936
Commissioned for music room (east wall),
Nicholas Elementary School, Evanston, Illinois,
c. 1936-? (destroyed). References: Woodall,
1977, no. 66.

51 . Dance Scene, c. 1936
Commissioned for music room (north wall)
Nicholas Elementary School, Evanston, Illinois,
c. 1 936-? (destroyed). References: Woodall,
1977, no. 65.

52. Negro Children, c. 1936

Commissioned for music room (south wall),
Nicholas Elementary School, Evanston, Illinois,
c. 1936-? (destroyed). References:

Mavigliano, 1990; Woodall, 1977, no. 67.

53. Chicken Shack, c. 1936

Location unknown. Provenance: Harmon
Foundation, 1967. Exhibitions: Washington,
D.C., 1936; Baltimore, 1939. References:
Fine, 1973; Locke, 1939; Patterson, 1967;
Watson, 1936; Woodall, 1977, no. 77.

54. Mural Sketch for City, Light and Power,

c. 1937. Location unknown. Exhibitions:
Chicago (Woman’s Club), 1933; Chicago,
1938. References: Rich, 1938; Woodall,

1977, no. 85.

55. Historical Piece about African Americans,

c. 1938

Oil on canvas, 63 x 25 in. (160 x 63.5 cm),
(framed). Collection of Camille O. and
William H. Cosby, Jr. References: South Side
Community Art Center, 1981.

56. In A Garden (A Study in Early Moonlight
and Artificial Light), c. 1938
Provenance: Evansville State Hospital, c.
1938-43 (destroyed). Exhibitions: Evansville,
1938. References: Woodall, 1977, no. 75.

57. Introduction of Slavery Into the United
States, c. 1938

Provenance: Evansville State Hospital, c.
1938-43 (destroyed). Exhibitions: Evansville,
1938. References: Evansville Press, 1938;
Woodall, 1977, no. 54; WPA, 1938.

58. Negroes Captured in Africa, c. 1938
Provenance: Evansville State Hospital, c.
1938-43 (destroyed). Exhibitions: Evansville,
1938. References: Evansville Press, 1938;
Woodall, 1977, no. 53; WPA, 1938.

59. The Argument, c. 1940

Oil on canvas, 44 1/2 x 34 1/2 in. (I 13 x 87.8
cm). Inscribed, lower right: A. J. Motley,

Jr./I 940. Barnett-Aden Collection.
Exhibitions: New York, 1988. References:
Anacostia, 1974; Driskell, 1975; Woodall,
1977, no. 86.

60. Recreation, c. 1940

Oil on canvas, 108 x 40 in. (274.3 x 101.6
cm) (framed). Commissioned for Auditorium,
Doolittle Elementary School, Chicago, Illinois,
c. 1940-? (destroyed). References: Woodall,

1977, no. 84

61 . Dancing, c. 1940

Location unknown. References: Woodall,
1977, no. 89; WPA, 1943.

62. Lakeside General Station, c. 1940
Location unknown. References: Woodall,
1977, no. 90; WPA, 1943.

63. Lincoln Riding Through Richmond, April 4,
1865, c. 1940

Location unknown. References: Woodall,
1977, no. 91; WPA, 1943.

64. Subway Construction, c. 1940

Location unknown. References: WPA, 1943.

65. Joe’s Place, c. 1943

Oil on canvas. Location unknown.

Exhibitions: Atlanta, 1943. References:

Atlanta University, 1943.

147

THE ART OF ARCHIBALD j. MOTLEY, JR.

66 . Jose Watering the Garden, c. 1952-53
Location unknown.

67. On the Salto Chula Vista Bus, c. 1952-53
Location unknown. References: Woodall,

1977, no. 98.

68. Cabaret at Puebla, c. 1953

Oil on woven petate, 49 1/2 x 69 1/2 in.

(125.7 x 176.5 cm). Collection of Archie
Motley and Valerie Gerrard Browne.
Provenance: Archibald J. Motley, Jr.,

1953-81; Archie Motley, 1981 -86; Archie
Motley and Valerie Gerrard Browne, 1986.

69. Cuernavaca, Mexico, 1953
Oil on canvas. Location unknown.
Provenance: Judge Irvin C. and Agnes
Mollison; Schomburg Center for Research In
Black Culture; Margaret Burroughs, 1983-?

70. Seri Indian Woman, 1953

Oil on canvas, 26 x 22 in. (66 x 55.9 cm).
Inscribed, lower right: Motley/53. Collection
of Archie Motley and Valerie Gerrard Browne.

71 . Mexican Road, Cuernavaca, c. 1953
Oil on canvas. Location unknown.
Provenance: Judge Irvin C. and Agnes
Mollison; Schomburg Center for Research In
Black Culture; Margaret Burroughs; Caribe Art
Center.

72. God Bless America, c. 1953
Oil on canvas. Location unknown.

Exhibitions: Chicago, 1953. References:
Chicago Sunday Tribune, 1953.

73. After Revelry, Meditation (After Fiesta,
Remorse, Siesta) (After Revelry and Fiesta,
Meditation and Siesta), c. 1960

Oil on canvas, 23 1/4x33 1/2 (59 x 85 cm).
Inscribed, lower left: Motley I960. The Evans-
Tibbs Collection. Exhibitions: New York,
1988; Washington, D.C., 1989. References:
McElroy, 1989; Tibbs, 1983; Woodall, 1977,
no. 102.

74. El Bodegon, c. 1970

Oil on canvas, 24 x 18 in. (61 .x 45.7 cm).

Collection of Dr. and Mrs. Solomon R.

Green. References: Woodall, 1977, no. 105.

Sketchbooks

A number of sketchbooks of signal importance
in documenting the artist’s work is found in
the collection of Archie Motley and Valerie
Gerrard Browne and in the Archibald J.

Motley, Jr., Papers, Archives and Manuscripts
Collection, Chicago Historical Society. In addi¬
tion to notes and lists of titles of paintings, they
contain numerous sketches, some for record¬
ed works (for instance, the now-destroyed
murals for the Nicholas Elementary School, c.

1936, checklist nos. 50, 51, and 52) and some
paintings for which there is no evidence of
actual execution. In some instances, Motley
drew a border around a sketch and noted the
work’s title and dimensions, suggesting that he
may have been recording an idea for a work
not yet executed. Occasionally, however, the
title or composition recorded in the sketch¬
book differs in key ways from the seemingly
related painting. The nature of the documen¬
tation offered by the sketchbooks, therefore,
necessitated some speculation in the compil¬
ing of a list of Motley’s paintings. The above
checklist seeks to err on the side of inclusive¬
ness, at the risk of redundancy.

48

Chronology of the Artist’s Life

1891 Motley born, October 7,

New Orleans

1914 Motley graduates from Englewood

High School, Chicago, and enters
The School of the Art Institute of
Chicago

1918 Motley graduates from The School

of the Art Institute

1924 Motley marries Edith Granzo

1925 The Art Institute of Chicago awards
Motley the Frank G. Logan prize for
A Mu/attress and the Joseph N.
Eisendrath prize for Syncopation.

1926 W.E.B. DuBois lists Motley in The
Crisis as a credit to the race for the
year 1925

1927 Mending Socks voted the most pop¬
ular painting in the exhibition,
“Paintings and Water Colors by
Living American Artists” at The
Newark Museum

1928 Motley shows twenty-six paintings
at his one-person exhibition at the
New Gallery, New York City

1928 Motley wins the Harmon

Foundation Prize for Octoroon Girl

1929-30 Motley wins a Guggenheim

Fellowship for a year of study
in Paris

1933

Motley exhibits Blues
at the “A Century of Progress”
exhibition at The Art Institute of
Chicago

Motley’s son Archibald J. Motley III
born

1933

The Chicago Woman’s Club spon¬
sors a one-person exhibition
for Motley

1935

Motley is appointed visiting instruc¬
tor at Howard University

Motley exhibits A Surprise in Store
at the A Century of Progress
Exposition, Chicago

1937

Motley is commissioned to paint
a mural for the Wood River, Illinois,
post office by the Treasury
Department

1941

South Side Community Art

Center opens

1948

Death of Edith Motley

1950

Gettin’ Religion receives Styletone
prize for unusual composition

1957 Motley has a one-person exhibition
at the Chicago Public Library

1972 Motley honored by the National
Conference of Artists, Chicago

1980 Motley receives an honorary doc¬
torate of fine arts from The
School of The Art Institute of
Chicago

Motley is one of ten distinguished
black artists honored by President
Carter at a White House reception

1981 Death of Motley, January 16,
Chicago

49

Selected

list of Exhibitions

Exhibitions listed below are cited in abrevi-
ated form.

Chicago, 1917

“Paintings by Negro Artists.” The Arts and
Letters Society, December 21.

Chicago, 1921

“Twenty-fifth Annual Exhibition by Artists of
Chicago and Vicinity.” The Art Institute of
Chicago, January 25 to February 26.

Chicago, 1922

“Twenty-sixth Annual Exhibition by Artists of
Chicago and Vicinity." The Art Institute of
Chicago, January 26 to March 25.

Chicago, 1923

“Twenty-seventh Annual Exhibition by Artists
of Chicago and Vicinity." The Art Institute of
Chicago, February I to March I I.

Albany, 1923

Literary Roundtable of Albany, February 4 to
February I I.

Chicago, 1925

“Twenty-ninth Annual Exhibition by Artists of

Chicago and Vicinity.” The Art

Institute of Chicago, January 30 to March 10.

Chicago (No-Jury), 1926

“Fourth Exhibition of the Chicago No-Jury
Society of Artists, Incorporated.” The Galleries
of Marshall Field & Company, January 30 to
March 10.

Chicago, 1926

“First Exhibition by Artists of Illinois.” All-Illinois
Society of Fine Arts, Incorporated. The
Galleries of Carson Pirie Scott & Company,
September 27 to October 16.

Springfield, 1926-27

“The First Art Exhibition of the Illinois
Academy of Fine Arts.” Galleries of the Illinois
State Museum, November 20 to January 20.

Chicago, 1927

“Fifth Exhibition of the Chicago No-Jury
Society of Artists, Incorporated.” The Galleries
of Marshall Field & Company, January 10 to
January 22.

Newark, 1927

“Paintings and Watercolors by Living American
Artists.” The Newark Museum, New Jersey,
March 22 to April 21.

Peoria, 1927

“Exhibit of Paintings, Etchings and Sculpture by
Professional Members of the Illinois Academy
of Fine Arts.” Hotel Pere Marquette, Peoria,
April 24 to May 28; traveled to Springfield,
Aurora, Flint, Decatur, Urbana, Elgin,
Rockford, Bloomington, and Rock Island.

New York, 1928

“Exhibition of Paintings by Archibald John
Motley, Jr." New Gallery, February 25 to
March 10.

Chicago, 1928

“Third Annual Exhibition by Members of the
Illinois Academy of Fine Arts.” Illinois
Women’s Athletic Club, December 9 to
December 30.

New York, 1929
(Harmon Foundation, 1929)

"Exhibit of Fine Arts by American Negro
Artists.” The Harmon Foundation and the
Commission on the Church and Race
Relations, Federal Council of Churches.
International House, January 13 to April 15.

Springfield, 1929

"Third Annual Exhibition by Members of the
Illinois Academy of Fine Arts.” Art Galleries of
the Illinois State Museum, January 13 to April
15 .

Louisville, 1929

"Exhibit of Fine Arts by American Negro
Artists.” J. B. Speed Memorial Museum, April
7 to April 14; traveled to Atlanta, Spelman
College, April 28 to May 5.

Chicago, 1929

“Thirty-third Annual Exhibition of Artists of
Chicago and Vicinity.” The Art Institute of
Chicago, February 7 to March 10.

Washington, D.C., 1929

“Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture by
American Negro Artists. The National Gallery
of Art. Smithsonian Institution, May 16 to May
29.

SO

New York, 1930

“Third Annual Exhibition of Fine Arts: Work of
Negro Men and Women.” The Harmon
Foundation and the Commission on the
Church and Race Relations, Federal Council
of Churches. International House, January 7
to January 19; traveled to Spelman College in
Atlanta for 10 days.

Copenhagen, 1930

“Udstilling af Amerikansk Kunst." The
American-Scandinavian Foundation, the
American Federation of Arts, and the
American Institute of Architects, May 3 to May
22. Also at Ny Carlsbergfondet, og Danmarks
Amerikanske Selskab, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek,
Copenhagen.

Chicago, 1930

“Thirty-fourth Annual Exhibition by Artists of
Chicago and Vicinity.” The Art Institute of
Chicago, January 30 to March 9.

Chicago (Renaissance Society), 1930

“Exhibition of Paintings Selected from the
Annual Exhibition of Paintings by Artists of
Chicago and Vicinity.” The Renaissance
Society of the University of Chicago. The Art
Institute of Chicago, Wieboldt Hall, March 12
to March 26.

Chicago, 1931

“Thirty-fifth Annual Exhibition by Artist of
Chicago and Vicinity.” The Art Institute of
Chicago, January 29 to March I.

Chicago (Merchandise Mart), 193 I

“Fifth Annual Art Exhibition by Members of the
Illinois Academy of Fine Arts.” Merchandise
Mart, April 15 to April 25; traveled to
Springfield, Illinois, Academy of Fine Arts, May
12 to August 3 I.

Alabama, 1931

“Works of Negro Artists.” The Harmon
Foundation. Tuskegee Institute, June 15 to
June 30.

New York, 1931

“John Simon Guggenheim Fellows.” Grand
Central Galleries.

New York (Harmon), 1931

The Harmon Foundation.

American Federation of Arts, 193 1-32

“American Federation of the Arts Exhibition by
Chicago Artist.” Carnegie Institute, December
22 to January 3 I.

Chicago, 1932

“Thirty-Sixth Annual Exhibition by Artists of
Chicago and Vicinity.” The Art Institute of
Chicago, January 28 to March 30.

Washington, D.C., 1932

The Harmon Foundation. Howard University.

Washington, D.C. (NAACP), 1932

“An Exhibition of the Works of Negro
Painters.” The Cultural Committee of the
Washington Branch of the NAACP. Howard
University Gallery of Art, May 17 to May 29.

New York, 1932

“Summer Exhibition of Paintings, Sculptures,
and Drawings." Brooklyn Museum, June to
October.

Michigan, 1932

“Chicago Artists.” University of Michigan.

Anderson Galleries, 1932

Notable Paintings and Drawings Chiefly of the
Modern Schools. Property of George S.
Heilman. Auction, American Art Association,
Anderson Galleries, December 14.

Chicago 1932-33

“Chicago Painters, A Group of Contemporary
Oils Selected by Robert B. Harshe, Director
of The Art Institute of Chicago.” Twenty-
fourth season, traveling exhibition. The
American Federation of Arts.

Chicago (Woman’s Club), 1933

One-person exhibition. Chicago Women’s
Club, January.

Chicago (Visitor’s), 1933

Visitor’s Tourist Service, Incorporated.

Chicago (Thirty-seventh), 1933

“Thirty-seventh Annual Exhibition by Artists of
Chicago and Vicinity.” The Art Institute of
Chicago, January 12 to March 5.

Chicago (Robinson), 1933

"Art of Today-Chicago, 1933.” Increase
Robinson’s Studio Gallery, January 21 to
February 19.

Chicago (Olivet Baptist Church), 1933

"Exhibition of Negro Artists.” Olivet Baptist
Church.

New York, 1933

"Paintings and Prints by Chicago Artists.”
Whitney Museum of American Art, February
28 to March 30.

New York (Guggenheim), 1933

“Exhibition of the Work of Artists Fellows of
thej. S. Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.”
April 3 to April 27.

Chicago (Kroch’s), 1933

Kroch’s Art Gallery.

New York (Whitney), 1933

"Contemporary Black Artists in America.”
Whitney Museum of American Art.

Chicago (Knights of Pythias), 1933

“The African American Negro Exhibition.”
Knights of Pythias Temple.

Washington, D. C., 1933

“Exhibition of Works of Negro Artists.”
Association for the Study of Negro Life and
History. National Gallery of Art, October 3 I
to November 6.

THE ART OF ARCHIBALD J. MOTLEY, JR.

Chicago (Century of Progress), 1933-34

“Chicago Exhibition of Paintings and
Sculpture.” A Century of Progress
International Exposition.

Chicago, 1934

“Thirty-eighth Annual Exhibition by Artists of
Chicago and Vicinity.” The Art Institute of
Chicago, February I to March 18.

Washington, D. C., 1934

“National Exhibition of Art by the Public
Works of Art Project.” Corcoran Gallery of
Art, April 24 to May 20.

Toledo, 1934

"Twenty-first Annual Exhibition of Selected
Paintings by Contemporary American Artists.”
Toledo Museum of Art, June 3 to August 26.

Chicago, 1935

“Negro Artists: An Illustrated Review of their
Achievements.” The Harmon Foundation,
Delphic Studios, April 22 to May 4.

Chicago (Davis Store), 1935

“Salon Des Refuses Exhibition by Artists of
Chicago and Vicinity." The Davis Store
Galleries.

Chicago (Art Institute), 1935

“Thirty-ninth Annual Exhibition by Artists of
Chicago and Vicinity.” The Art Institute of
Chicago, January 3 I to March 10.

Chicago (Mandell Brothers), 1935

“Exhibition of Sketches Submitted for the
Federal Mural Competition.” Mandell Brothers
Loop Store, July 15 to July 30.

Gary, 1935

Roosevelt High School.

Texas, 1936

“Exhibition of Fine Arts Productions by
America Negroes." Hall of Negro Life, Texas
Centennial, June 19 to November 29.

Washington, D. C., 1936

"Treasury Department Art Projects Paintings
and Sculpture for Federal Buildings." Corcoran
Gallery of Art, November 17 to
December 13.

Washington, D. C. (Howard), 1937

Howard University Gallery of Art.

New York, 1937

Dance International 1900-1937. International
Building, Rockefeller Center, November 28.

Evansville, 1938

“Fifty Paintings from the Chicago Works
Progress Administration Art Project."

Evansville State Hospital, Indiana, May I to
May 2.

Chicago, 1938

"Art for the Public by Chicago Artists." Federal
Art Project, Works Progress Administration.
The Art Institute of Chicago, July 28 to
October 9.

Baltimore, 1939

"Contemporary Negro Art.” Baltimore
Museum of Art, February 3 to February 19.

Chicago, 1940

"We, Too, Look at America: National Negro
Art Exhibition." Southside Community Art
Center, Dedication Exhibition, May I I to
May 31.

Chicago (Tanner Galleries), 1940

“Exhibition of the Art of the American Negro,

1851 to 1940.” American Negro Exposition.
Tanner Art Galleries, July 4 to September 2.

Chicago, 1940—41

Opening exhibition of paintings by negro
artists of the Illinois Art Project. Work Projects
Administration. Southside Community Art
Center, December 15 to January 28.

Washington, D. C., 1940

Commemoration of the Seventy-fifth
Anniversary of the Proclamation of the
Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution.
United States Library of Congress, December
18 to January 18.

New York, 1942

“American Negro Art, 19th and 20th
Centuries.” The Downtown Gallery,
December 9 to January 3.

Atlanta, 1943

“Atlanta University Annual Art Exhibition,
Second Annual Exhibition of Paintings by
Negro Artists of America.” Atlanta University
Art Gallery, April 4 to May 2.

New York, 1945

“The Negro Artist Comes of Age, A National
Survey of Contemporary American Artists.”
Albany Institute of History and Art, January 3
to February I I.

Washington, D. C., 1945

"Some Modes in Modern Painting, Festival of
Fine Arts.” Howard University Gallery of Art,
Founders Library, May 3 to May 5.

Chicago, 1946

“Exhibition of Independent Citizens
Committee of the Arts, Sciences and
Professions, Incorporated.” 75 East Wacker
Drive, May 4.

Chicago (Art Institute), 1946

“The Chicago Newspaper Guild’s Exhibition
of Paintings and Drawings of the Newspaper
Industry.” The Art Institute of Chicago,
November 4 to November 30.

Chicago, 1947

“Representative Works by Chicago Artists."
The Student Committee of the Renaissance
Society University of Chicago, July 12 to
August 8.

SELECTED LIST OF EXHIBITIONS

Chicago, 1949

“Fifty-third Annual Exhibition by Artists of
Chicago and Vicinity." The Art Institute of
Chicago, February 10 to March 20.

Springfield, 1949

“Fifth Annual Exhibition, North Mississippi
Valley Artists.” Illinois State Museum, June 5 to
August 28.

Chicago, 1953

Chicago Public Library.

Chicago, 1957

Archibald John Motley, Jr. Chicago Public
Library, October I to October 30.

New York, 1967

“The Evolution of Afro-American Artists:

1800-1950.” City University of New York in
cooperation with the Harlem Cultural Council
and the New York Urban League City
College, October 16 to November 5.

New York, 1968

"Invisible Americans: Black Artists of the
1930s.” Studio Museum in Harlem,
November 19 to January 5.

La Jolla, 1970

“Dimensions of Black." La Jolla Museum of
Art, February 15 to March 29.

Springfield, 1971-72

“Painters and Sculptors in Illinois 1820-1945.”
Illinois Arts Council. Illinois State Museum,
October 30 to December 12; in 1972 trav¬
eled to Krannert Art Museum, February 6 to
February 27; Chicago Historical Society, April
26 to June 24.

Washington, D. C., 1974

“The Barnett-Aden Collection.” Anacostia
Neighborhood Collection, Smithsonian
Institution.

Nashville, 1975

“Amistad II, Afro-American Art.” Fisk
University Department of Art in cooperation
with the American Missionary Association and
the United Church Board for the Homeland
Ministries. Van Vechten Gallery, Fisk
University Department of Art.

Boston, 1975

“Jubilee: Afro-American Artists on Afro-
America.” Museum of the National Center of
Afro-American Artists, November 14 to
January 4.

Schenectady, 1976

“Black Artists in Historical Perspective.”
Schenectady Museum, February 14 to April 4;
traveled to Albany, Albany Institute of History
and Art, May I to May 3 I.

Los Angeles, 1976

“Two Centuries of Black American Art.” Los
Angeles County Museum of Art, September
30 to November 21; traveled to Atlanta, High
Museum of Art, January 8 to February 20.

Chicago, 1976

South Side Community Art Center. March.

St. Louis, 1977

“Currents of Expansion: Painting in the
Midwest, 1820 to 1940.” St. Louis Art
Museum, February 18 to April 10.

Dallas, 1977

“Two Centuries of Black American Art.”
Museum of Fine Arts, March 30 to May 15;
traveled to New York, Brooklyn Museum,
June 25 to August 21.

New York, 1978

“New York/Chicago WPA and the Black
Artist." Studio Museum in Harlem, November
13 to January 8; traveled to Chicago, Chicago
Public Library Cultural Center, March 22 to
April 23.

Huntsville, 1979

“Black Artists/South." Huntsville Museum of
Art, April I to July 29.

Washington, D. C., 1980

National Conference of Artists. Corcoran
Gallery of Art, March 14 to April 4.

Chicago, 1981

40th Anniversary Silent Auction. South Side
Community Art Center, June 17.

Springfield, 1983

“After the Crash: New Deal Art in Illinois.”
Illinois State Museum, December 17 to
September 6.

New York, 1984

“A Blossoming of New Promises: Art in the
Spirit of the Harlem Rennaissance.” Emily
Love Gallery, Hofstra University.

Chicago, 1985

“Twentieth Annual Art Auction.” South Side
Community Center, May 26.

New York, 1985

“Collector’s Choice: Treasures from the
Schomburg Center." Schomburg Center for
Research in Black Culture, February I to
April 5.

Atlanta, 1985-86

“Afro-American Paintings and Prints from the
Collection of Judge Irvin C. Mollison; A Gift to
the Atlanta University Art Collections.”
Waddell Gallery, Atlanta University,

December 15.

Los Angeles, 1987

“The Portrayal of the Black Musician in
American Art.” California Afro-American
Museum.

Chicago, 1988

“The Collector’s Art.” Museum of Science and
Industry.

153

THE ART OF ARCHIBALD j. MOTLEY, JR.

Detroit, 1988

“Homage to Archibald J. Motley, Jr.” Your
Heritage House, Incorporated, February to
March 10.

New York, 1988

“Three Masters: Eldzier Cortor, Hughie Lee-
Smith, Archibald J. Motley, Jr.” Kenkeleba
Gallery, May 22 to July 17.

Washington, D. C. (Blues), 1989

“The Blues Aesthetic: Black Culture and
Modernism.” Washington Project for the Arts,
September 14 to December 9; traveled to
Los Angeles, California Afro-American
Museum, January 12 to March 4; Durham,
Duke University Museum of Art, March 23 to
May 20; Houston, Blaffel Gallery, University of
Houston, June 8 to July 3 I; New York, Studio
Museum in Harlem, September 14 to
December 30.

Washington, D. C. (SITES), 1989

"African American Artists 1880-1987,
Selections from the Evans-Tibbs Collection.”
Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition
Service.

New York, 1989

“Afro-American Artists in Paris: 1919-1939.”
The Bertha And Karl LeubsdorfArt Gallery,
Hunter College of the City University of New
York, November 8 to December 22.

Washington, D. C., 1990

"Facing History: Black Images in American Art
1710-1940.” Corcoran Gallery of Art, January
13 to March 25; traveled to New York,
Brooklyn Museum, April 20 to June 25.

Newark, 1990

“Against the Odds: African American Artists
and the Harmon Foundation 1923-1943.”
Newark Museum of Art, January 13 to
April 15.

I 54

Bibliography of Works Cited

Works listed below are cited in
abbreviated form.

AAA, 1932

Notable Paintings and Drawings (auct. cat.).
New York: American Art Association/
Anderson Galleries, Inc. December 14, 1932.

Aden, 1940

Aden, Alonzo J. “The Exhibit of Graphic Art."
In Commemoration of the Seventy-Fifth
Anniversary of the Proclamation of the
Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution of
the United States. Washington, D.C.: Library
of Congress, 1940.

American Heritage, 1986

“Our 2nd Annual Winter Art Show."

American Heritage 38 (December 1986).

American Negro Artists, 1929

National Gallery of Art. Catalogue of an
Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture by
American Negro Artists (exh. cat.).

Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of
Art/Smithsonian Institution, 1929.

American-Scandinavian Foundation, 1930

The American-Scandinavian Foundation.
Udstilling af Amerikansk Kunst (exh. cat.).
Copenhagen: Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, 1930.

Anacostia, 1974

Anacostia Neighborhood Museum. The
Barnett-Aden Collection (exh. cat.).
Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution
Press, 1974.

Art Institute, 1921

The Art Institute of Chicago. Twenty-fifth
Annual Exhibition by Artists of Chicago and
Vicinity (exh. cat.). Chicago: The Art Institute
of Chicago, 1921.

Art Institute, 1922

The Art Institute of Chicago. Twenty-sixth
Annual Exhibition by Artists of Chicago and
Vicinity (exh. cat.). Chicago: The Art Institute
of Chicago, 1922.

Art Institute, 1923

The Art Institute of Chicago. Twenty-seventh
Annual Exhibition by Artists of Chicago and
Vicinity (exh. cat.). Chicago: The Art Institute
of Chicago, 1923.

Art Institute, 1925

The Art Institute of Chicago. Twenty-ninth
Annual Exhibition by Artists of Chicago and
Vicinity (exh. cat.). Chicago: The Art Institute
of Chicago, 1925.

Art Institute, 1929

The Art Institute of Chicago. Thirty-third
Annual Exhibition by Artists of Chicago and
Vicinity (exh. cat.). Chicago: The Art Institute
of Chicago, 1929

Art Institute, 1930

Art Institute of Chicago. Thirty-fourth Annual
Exhibition by Artists of Chicago and Vicinity
(exh. cat.). Chicago: The Art Institute of
Chicago, 1930.

Art Institute, 1931

The Art Institute of Chicago. Thirty-fifth
Annual Exhibition by Artists of Chicago and
Vicinity (exh. cat.). Chicago: The Art Institute
of Chicago, 1931.

Art Institute, 1932

The Art Institute of Chicago. Thirty-sixth
Annual Exhibition by Artists of Chicago and
Vicinity (exh. cat.). Chicago: The Art Institute
of Chicago, 1932.

Art Institute, 1933

The Art Institute of Chicago. Thirty-seventh
Annual Exhibition by Artists of Chicago and
Vicinity (exh. cat.). Chicago: The Art Institute
of Chicago, 1933.

Art Institute, 1935

The Art Institute of Chicago. Thirty-ninth
Annual Exhibition by Artists of Chicago and
Vicinity (exh. cat.). Chicago: The Art Institute
of Chicago, 1935.

Atlanta University, 1943

Atlanta University. Exhibition of Paintings by
Negro Artists of America (exh. cat.). Atlanta:
Atlanta University, 1943.

Barnett, 1933

Barnett, Albert C. “Tanner and Motley Listed
in Fair Art Exhibit.” Defender (Chicago),
September 2, 1933.

155

THE ART OF ARCHIBALD j. MOTLEY, JR.

Barter, 1977

Barter, Judith A. and Lynn E. Springer.

Currents of Expansion: Paintings in the Midwest,
1820-1940 (exh. cat.). St. Louis: St. Louis Art
Museum, 1977.

Bernard, 1989

Bernard, Catherine. Afro-American Artists in
Paris: 1919-1 939. New York: Hunter
College, 1989.

Black Collegian, 1985

“The Art of the Harlem Renaissance: Turning
Point in Black Consciousness.” Black Collegian
15 (January/February 1985).

Black Dimensions in Art, 1976

Black Artists in Historical Perspective. New
York: Black Dimensions in Art, 1976.

Brooklyn Museum, 1932

Brooklyn Museum. Catalogue of the Summer
Exhibition of Paintings, Sculpture, and Drawings
(exh. cat.). Brooklyn: Brooklyn Museum, 1932.

Campbell, 1987

Campbell, Mary Schmidt. Harlem Renaissance
Art of Black America (exh. cat.). New York:
Studio Museum, 1987.

Center Gallery, 1984

The Center Gallery of Bucknell University.
Since the Harlem Renaissance (exh. cat.).
Lewisburg: The Center Gallery of Bucknell
University, 1984.

Century of Progress, 1934

The Art Institute of Chicago. Catalogue of a
Century of Progress Exhibition of Paintings and
Sculpture (exh. cat.). Chicago: The Art Institute
of Chicago, 1934.

Chabrier, 1925

Comte Chabrier. “Expositions de lArt Institute
de Chicago, du No-Jury Exposition et du
Cincinnati museum." Revue du Vrai et du Beau,
4 (February I, 1925).

Chabrier and Serac, 1925

Comte Chabrier and G. Serac, “Expositions
dAmerique." Revue du Vrai et du Beau 4 (July
10, 1925).

Chicago Evening Post, 1932

“Art of East is Challenged by Mid-West.”
Chicago Evening Post, February 2, 1932.

Chicago Newspaper Guild, 1946

Inside Page One: Second Annual Yearbook.
Chicago: Chicago Newspaper Guild,
November 22, 1946.

City University of New York, 1967

The Evolution of Afro-American Artists:
1800-1950. New York: The City University
of New York, 1967.

Corcoran Gallery, 1934

The Corcoran Gallery of Art. National
Exhibition of Art by the Public Works of Art
Project (exh. cat.). Washington, D.C.: The
Corcoran Gallery of Art, 1934.

Dallas, 1936

Exhibition of Fine Arts Productions by American
Negroes (exh. cat.). Dallas: Texas Centennial,
1936.

Davis Store, 1935

The Davis Store Galleries. Catalog of the Salon
des Refuses: Exhibition by Artists of Chicago and
Vicinity (exh. cat.). Chicago: The Davis Store
Galleries, 1935.

Dover, I960

Dover, Cedric. American Negro Art. New
York: New York Graphic Society, 1960.

Driskell, 1975

Driskell, David. Amistad II: Afro-American Art.
Nashville: Fisk University, 1975.

Driskell, 1976

Driskell, David. Two Centuries of Black
American Art (exh. cat.). New York: Alfred A.
Knopf/Los Angeles County Museum, 1976.

Dunkley, 1985

Dunkley, Tina. Afro-American Paintings and
Prints from the Collection of Judge Irvin C.
Mollison (exh. cat.). Atlanta: Clark Atlanta
University, 1985.

Evansville Press, 1938

“Permanent Collection of 50 Paintings to be
Displayed for Public in State Hospital Sunday
and Monday.” The Evansville Press (Evansville,
Indiana), May 1938.

Evening Star, 1935

“Colored Artist Paintings Painting Murals.” The
Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), October 18,
1935.

Fauset, 1990

Fauset, Jessie Redmon. Plum Bun: A Novel
Without a Moral (cover illustration). Boston:
Beacon Press, 1990.

Fine, 1973

Fine, Elsa Honig. The Afro-American Artist.
New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc.,
1973.

Forgey, 1980

Forgey, Benjamin. "Black Artists—Vivid Scenes
and Urban Images.” The Washington Post,
April 2, 1980.

Gaither, 1975

Gaither, E. Barry. Jubilee (exh. cat.). Boston:
Museum of Fine Arts and the Museum of the
National Center of Afro-American Artists,
1975.

Ghent, 1968

Ghent, Henri. Invisible Americans: Black Artists
of the 1930s (exh. cat.). New York: The
Studio Museum, 1968.

Halpert, 1942

Halpert, Edith Gregor. American Negro Art:
19th and 20th Centuries (exh. cat.). New
York: The Downtown Gallery, 1942.

156

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF WORKS CITED

Harmon Foundation, 1929

Exhibit of Fine Arts by American Negro Artists
(exh. cat.). New York: The Harmon
Foundation, 1929.

Herald and Examiner, 1929

“Negro Artist Wins Honors.” Herald and
Examiner. January 7, 1929.

Hudson, 1979

Hudson, Ralph N. Black Artists/South (exh.
cat.). Huntsville, Alabama: Huntsville Museum
of Art, 1979.

Hunter, 1988

Hunter, John. Homage to Archibald John
Motley, Jr. Detroit: Your Heritage House,
Incorporated, 1988.

Hyde Park Herald, 1933

"The Renaissance Society Column of Art
Notes and Comments.” The Hyde Park
Herald, July 14, 1933.

IAFA, 1926

Illinois Academy of Fine Arts. Catalogue of the
First Exhibition by Members of the Illinois
Academy of Fine Arts in the Galleries of the
Illinois State Museum (exh. cat.). Chicago:

Illinois Academy of Fine Arts, 1926.

IAFA, 1929

Art Galleries of the Illinois State Museum.

Third Annual Exhibition by Members of the
Illinois Academy of Fine Arts (exh. cat.).
Springfield: Art Galleries of the Illinois State
Museum, 1929.

IAFA, 1931

Illinois Academy of Fine Arts. Fifth Annual Art
Exhibition by Members of the Illinois Academy of
Fine Arts (exh. cat.). Chicago: Illinois Academy
of Fine Arts, 1931.

ISFA, 1926

All Illinois Society of the Fine Arts, Inc. First
Exhibition by Artists of Illinois, at the Galleries of
Carson, Pirie, Scott and Company (exh. cat.).
Chicago: All Illinois Society of the Fine Arts,

Inc., 1926.

IWAC, 1928

Illinois Women’s Athletic Club. Third Annual
Exhibition by Members of the Illinois Academy of
Fine Arts (exh. cat.). Chicago: Illinois Women’s
Athletic Club, 1928.

Jacobson, 1933

Jacobson, Jacob Z., ed. Art of Today: Chicago,

/ 933. Chicago: L. Stein, 1933.

Jewell, 1928

Jewell, Edward Alden. “A Negro Artist Plumbs
the Negro Soul.” The New York Times
Magazine, March 25, 1928.

Jewett, 1933

Jewett, Eleanor. "Show Works of A. J. Motley
at Woman’s Club.” Tribune (Chicago), January
26, 1933.

Kofman, 1972

Kofman, Nadine. "Student Finds Neglected
Black Artist Still Painting.” Centre Daily Times
(University Park), August 2, 1972.

Kramer, 1974

Kramer, Victor, ed. Studies in the Literary
Imagination 7:2 (Fall 1974).

LeFalle-Collins, 1987

LeFalle-Collins, Lizzetta and Leonard Simon.
The Portrayal of the Black Musician in American
Art (exh. cat.). Los Angeles: California Afro-
American Museum, 1987.

Locke, 1939

Locke, Alain. Contemporary Negro Art (exh.
cat.). Baltimore: Baltimore Museum of Art,
1939.

Locke, 1940

Locke, Alain. The Art of the American Negro
1851-1940 (exh. cat.). Chicago: Tanner Art
Galleries/American Negro Exposition, 1940.

Locke, (We Too), 1940

Locke, Alain. We Too Look at America (exh.
cat.). Chicago: South Side Community Art
Center, May 1940.

Locke, 1945

Locke, Alain. The Negro Artist Comes of Age: A
National Survey of Contemporary American
Artists (exh. cat). Albany: Albany Institute of
History and Art, 1945.

Madden, 1971

Madden, Betty I. Paintings and Sculptors in
Illinois 1820-1945 (exh. cat.). Springfield:

Illinois Arts Council, 1971.

McElroy, 1989

McElroy, Guy C., Richard J. Powell, and
Sharon Patton. African American Artists
1880-1987: Selections from the Evans-Tibbs
Collection. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian
Institution, 1989.

McElroy, 1990

McElroy, Guy. Facing History: The Black Image
in American Art 1710-1940. California:

Bedford Publishers, 1990.

McKenna, 1983

McKenna, Maureen A. After the Great Crash:
New Deal Art in Illinois (exh. cat.). Springfield:
Illinois State Museum, 1983.

Mandel Brothers, 1935

Exhibition of Sketches Submitted for the Federal
Mural Competition (exh. cat.). Chicago:

Mandel Brothers, 1935.

Mavigliano, 1990

Mavigliano, George J. and Richard A. Lawson.
The Federal Art Project in Illinois 1935-1943.
Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University
Press, 1990.

I 57

THE ART OF ARCHIBALD J. MOTLEY, JR.

National Gallery, 1933

Association for the Study of Negro Life and
History. Exhibition of Works by Negro Artists ot
the National Gallery of Art/Smithsonian
Institution (exh. cat.). Washington, D.C.:
Association for the Study of Negro Life and
History, 1933.

National Urban League, 1978

Golden Opportunity (exh. cat.). New York:

The National Urban League, 1978.

New Gallery, 1928

The New Gallery. Exhibition of Paintings by
Archibald John Motley, Jr. (exh. cat.) New
York: The New Gallery, 1928.

The New Yorker, 1928

“The Art Galleries.” The New Yorker, March
10, 1928, pp. 78-79.

Newark Museum, 1927

The Newark Museum. Paintings and Water
Golors by Living American Artists, (exh. cat.)
Newark: The Newark Museum, 1927.

No-Jury, 1926

Chicago No-Jury Society of Artists. Fourth
Exhibition of the Chicago No-Jury Society of
Artists (exh. cat.). Chicago: Chicago No-Jury
Society of Artists, 1926.

No-Jury, 1927

Chicago No-Jury Society of Artists. Fifth
Exhibition of the Chicago No-Jury Society of
Artists (exh. cat.). Chicago: Chicago No-Jury
Society of Artists, 1927.

Opportunity Magazine, 1928

"Archibald John Motley, Jr.” Opportunity
Magazine (April, 1928).

Powell, 1989

Powell, Richard. The Blues Aesthetic: Black
Culture and Modernism (exh.cat.). Washington,
D.C.: Washington Projects for the Arts, 1989.

Price, 1980

Price, Ramon. “Five Artists: Four Works.” In
DuSable Museum Artists Directory 1980-1981.
Chicago: DuSable Museum of African
American History, 1980.

Reader’s Digest, 1978

“Black Art in America,” Reader’s Digest (June
1978).

Renaissance Society, 1930

Exhibition of Paintings Selected from the Annual
Exhibition of Paintings by Artists of Chicago and
Vicinity (exh. cat.). Chicago: The Renaissance
Society and the University of Chicago, 1930.

Reynolds, 1990

Reynolds, Gary A. and Beryl J. Wright. Against
the Odds: African-American Artists and the
Harmon Foundation, 1923-1943 (exh. cat.).
Newark: The Newark Museum of Art, 1990.

Rich, 1938

Rich, Daniel Catton. Art for the Public by
Chicago Artists. Works Progress Administration
Federal Art Projects (exh. cat.). Chicago: The
Art Institute of Chicago, 1938.

Roberts, 1937

Roberts, Mary F., ed. Dance International
1900-1937 (exh. cat.). New York: Dance
International Committee, 1937.

Robinson, 1987

Robinson, Jontyle Theresa. “Archibald John
Motley, Jr.: Pioneer Artist of the Urban
Scene.” In American Visions: Afro-American
Art-1986, edited by Carroll Greene, Jr.
Washington, D.C.: Visions Foundation, Inc.,
1987.

Robinson, 1988

Robinson, Jontyle Theresa. “The Art of
Archibald John Motley, Jr.: A Notable
Anniversary for a Pioneer.” In Three Masters:
EJdzier Cortor, Hughie Lee-Smith, Archibald
John Motley, Jr. (exh. cat.). New York:
Kenkeleba Gallery, 1988.

South Side Community Art Center, 1940

South Side Community Art Center. Paintings
by Negro Artists of the Illinois Art Project, Works
Progress Administration (exh. cat.). Chicago:
South Side Community Art Center, 1940.

South Side Community Art Center, 1981

South Side Community Art Center. 40th
Anniversary: Silent Auction. Chicago: The South
Side Community Art Center, 1981.

Studio Gallery, 1933

The Studio Gallery. Exhibition by Chicago
Artists. Chicago: Studio Gallery, 1933.

Teilbet, 1970

Teilbet, Jehaone, ed. Dimensions of Black.

(exh. cat.) La Jolla Museum of Art, 1970.

Tibbs, 1983

Tibbs, Thurlow. Surrealism and the Afro-
American Artist (exh. cat.). Washington, D.C.:
The Evans-Tibbs Collection, 1983.

Toledo, 1934

Toledo Museum of Art. Catalogue of the
Twenty-first Annual Exhibition of Selected
Paintings by Contemporary American Artists.
Toledo: Toledo Museum of Art, 1934.

Tribune (Catalogue) 1953

“Catalogue of the Twenty-first Annual
Exhibition of Selected Paintings by Chicago
Sunday Tribune," Tribune (Chicago), October
25, 1953.

Tribune, 1953

“Negro Artists Exhibit at Public Library.”
Tribune (Chicago), October 25, 1953.

Tribune, 1935

“Eight Chicago Artists Win Competition for
Postoffice Murals.” Tribune (Chicago), July 16,
1935.

Viva, 1976

“The Tattler." Viva 4 (November 1976).

158

Wallace, 1986

Wallace, Carol et al. Dance: A Very Social
History. New York: The Metropolitan
Museum of Art and Rizzoli International
Publications, 1986.

Watson, 1936

Watson, Forbes. Painting and Sculpture for
Federal Buildings. Treasury Department Art
Projects (exh. cat.). Washington, D.C.:
Corcoran Gallery of Art, 1936.

Whitney Museum, 1933

Paintings and Prints by Chicago Artists (exh.
cat.). New York: The Whitney Museum of
American Art, 1933.

Woodall, 1977

Woodall, Elaine D. "Archibald J. Motley, Jr.:
American Artist of the Afro-American People
1891 -1928.” Master’s thesis. Pennsylvania
State University, 1977.

Woodall, 1979

Woodall, Elaine D. “Looking Backward:
Archibald J. Motley and the Art Institute of
Chicago.” Chicago History 8 (Spring 1979):
53-55

Index

Illustrations are indicated by italicized numbers,
unless text on and illustration of the subject are on
the same page.

For works by artists other than Archibald J. Motley,
Jr., the artist’s name is indicated in parentheses after
the title of the work.

Abbott, Robert S.: 42
Abercrombie, Gertrude: 57
Adams, Wayman: 35
Adams, Jean Crawford: 54
Africa: 21, I 14
Africa: I, I 1-13,21,51
After Revelry, Meditation: 25, 57
Afternoon Tea: See Reception
Albright, Adam Emory: 52
Aline An Octoroon: 9
All Nations Pentecostal Church: 46
Alston, Charles: 14
American Art Gallery: 13
American Giants: 40
American Gothic (Grant Wood): 54
Americans in Paris (du Bois, Guy Pene): 35
Angarola, Anthony: 52
Another Mexican Baby: 24, 132
The Argument: 23
Aristocrat Records: 47
Arkansas: 16-17,23,33
Armin, Emil: 52, 54
Armory Show: 49, 50
Armour Institute: 3
Armstrong, Louis: 16, 47
Arrival at Chickasaw bayou of the Slaves of Jefferson
Davis: 21, I 19

"Art for the Public" Exhibition: 56

160

Art Institute of Chicago: 5, I 1,22, 37, 48, 53, 56.

See also School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Art Students League: 53
Artistic, Inc.: 24

Artists’ Equity Society of America: 56

Artists’ Union: 56

Arts and Crafts Guild: 55

Arts and Letters Society: 51

Ascent Ethiopia (Lois Mailou Jones): xvi

Ashcan School: 5, 35, 50, 54

Athenaeum: 48

Avery, Henry: 54, 57

Baker, Josephine: 18

Baldassare Castiglione (Raphael): 19

band Playing: 22

banjo Lesson (Henry Ossawa Tanner): 34

barbecue (c. 1935): 23, 105

barbecue (1960): 25, 140

Barbizon School: 48

barn and Silo: 1 6 , 82

Barthe, Richmond: 51

Bearden, Bessie: 14, 38

Bearden, Romare: 14

Bellows, George: 5, 35, 50

Benton, Thomas Hart: 55

Betts, Louis: 52

between Acts: 107

The bill Poster (Charles Clarence Dawson): 51
Binga Bank: 42
Binga, Jesse: 42

black and Tan Cabaret: 12, 1 6 , 20, 35, 46
black belt: 20, 104

Black Belt (Chicago): 20, 33, 34, 38-48, 52,

58, 104

Blackshear, Kathleen: 55

blind Sister Mary (William E. Scott): 50

blues: xv, 18, 34, 44, 89

Blues (music): 18, 37, 47

boat and Houses by the River: 16, 85
Boh rod, Aaron: 57

both Members of this Club (George Bellows): 35, 36
The boys in the back Room (Card Players): 20, 106
Bronzeville (Chicago): 1, 19-25, 37, 38, 39,

39-48, 54

bronzeville at Night: 46, 129
Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters: 2
brown Girl After the bath: 19-20, 98
Bruce, Richard: 14
Buehr, Karl: 4, 5, 50, 53
Buffalo: I

Burnham, Daniel: 49

Burroughs, Margaret Taylor Goss: 55, 58

Cabaret (Frances Strain): 54

Cabaret at Puebla: 24

Cabaret de Champion: 47

Cafe, Paris: 19, 90

Calle de Padre: 25, 134

Callejon de beso: 25, 135

Calloway, Cab: 47

Card Players: See boys in the back Room

Carey, Archibald J.: 40

Carnival: 20, 115

Carter, William: 54, 55, 57

Casey and Mae in the Street: 23, 43, 126

Catlett, Elizabeth: xv

Cayton, Horace: 46

Century of Progress International Exposition: 22

Chabrier, Comte: 16

Chase, William Merritt: 52

The Chef: 4, 67

Chess Records: 47

Chicago Academy of Fine Arts: See Art Institute
of Chicago

Chicago Art League: 51
Chicago Artists Group: 57
Chicago Fire (1871): 48

NDEX

Chicago Hot Five: 16

Chicago Society of Artists: 48

Chicago Urban League: 42

Chicago Woman’s Club: 22, 51

Chicken Shack: 43

Christmas Eve: 23, 128

Clark, Alson Skinner: 53

Cliff Dwellers (George Bellows): 35

Connie’s Inn: 12

Corot, Camille: 15

Cortor, Eldzier: 23, 54, 55, 57

Cotton Club: II, 16, 37

A Countryside (William S. Schwartz): 52

Covarrubias, Miguel: 15, 54

Creation (Aaron Douglas): 37

Creative Art: 12

The Crisis: 16

Cullen, Countee: 37

Curry, John Stuart: 55

Daily News Building: 5

Dalstrom, Gustaf: 54

Dance Scene: 21

Dans la Rue, Paris: 19, 90, 9/

Davey, Randall: 5
Davis, Charles: 54, 55, 57
Dawson, Charles Clarence: 51
Defender: 14,38,40,42
DePriest, Oscar: 42
Devil-Devils: 12
Doolittle School: 22
Douglas, Aaron: xv, xvi, 14, 37, 39
Douglass, Frederick: 21

Douglass Memorial Hall (Howard University): 21

Drake, St. Clair: 46

Dreamland Cafe: 47

Driskell, David: 37

du Bois, Guy Pene: 35

DuBois, W. E. B.: 16, 27

Duke Ellington Band: 16

DuSable Museum of African American History: 58

Eagle’s Nest (Oregon, Illinois): 48

Eddy, Arthur Jerome: 48

Ellington, Duke: 37, 47

Ellison, Walter: 54, 57

Englewood: 2, 3, 41

Englewood High School: 3, 4, 49

Ethiopia Awakening: xvi, 39, 51

"The Evolution of the Negro’’: 21

"Exhibition of Artists of Chicago and Vicinity”:

8, I 1,53

Extra Paper (State Street Scene): 23, 125

Fatigue (Charles White): 55

Farrow, William McKnight: 35, 36, 50-51,53, 57

Fetiche et Fleurs (Palmer Hayden): xvi

Fine Arts Building: 48

The First One Hundred Years: He Amongst You Who
is Without Sin Shall Cast the First Stone: Forgive
Them Father For They Know Not What They Do:
25,26, 27, 33, 143
Fletcher Henderson Band: 16
Flight: 19

The Flower (Randall Davey): 5
Franklin, Josephine: 25
Frazier, E. Franklin: 45
Frederick Douglass: 21
French, William R.: 49
Fuller, Meta Warrick: xvi, 37, 39
Gabriel, Ramon: 56, 57
Gallery 291:52
Gates, Henry Louis, Jr.: 27
Geller, Todros: 54
Georgia: 40

Gettin' Religion: 23, 43, 46, 126, 127

Gillespie, Dizzy: 57

Gordon, Si: 57

Goss, Bernard: 54, 57

Granzo, Edith: See Motley, Edith G.

Great Migration: xv, 40-43, 46, 51
Greenstein, Benjamin: 18
Guanjuato, Mexico: 25, 136
Guggenheim Foundation: I, 17, 19,38
Gunsaulus, Frank: 3
Haiti: 50

Hall Branch Library: 21

Hamilton, Carl: 13

Harlem: I 1-12, 37

Harlem Art Center: 23

Harlem Renaissance: xvi, II, 14, 16, 37, 47

Harmon Foundation: 22, 36, 51

Harper, William A.: 50, 51

Harris, Neil: 49

Harshe, Robert B.: II, 13-14,37-38,47,51

Hayden, Harold: 57

Hayden, Palmer: xvi, 37, 44

Head of a Quadroon: 9

Heilman, George: I 1, 38

Herring, James V.: 21

Hollingsworth, Fred: 57
Holy Rollers: See Tongues
Hopper, Edward: 4
Hot Rhythm: 25, 141
Howard University: 21,22, 35
Huff, Harriet: 1,12
Huggins, Nathan Irvin: I I
Hughes, Langston: 37, 46
Humboldt Park Field House: 21
Hutchinson, Charles L.: 48
Hyde Park: 41,57

Illinois Art Project: 20-21,23, 55, 57

Illinois Central Railroad: 40

Impressionism: 48

In A Garden: 21

Jacobs, William: 54

Jacobson, J. Z.: 53

Jazz: 15, 16, 18,37,46,47

Jazz Age: 11-12, 16, 34,37

Jazz Singers: 21, 116

Jewell, Edward Alden: 12-13

Jockey Club: 19, 20, 33, 92, 93

Johnson, Jack: 16

Johnson, Malvin Grey: xvi

Johnson, Sargent: xvi

Johnson, William H.: 37

Jones, Lois Mailou: xv, xvi

Jonson, Raymond: 52

Jose with a Serape: 24-25, 131

Juvenile Court: 21

Kempf, Tom: 57

Kentucky: 40

Kenwood: 41

Kerr, Florence: 23

Kersey, Joe: 55, 57

Kikuyu God of Fire: xvi, 12-13, 39, 81

King Joe Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band: 16

Krehbiel, Albert: 4, 5, 50

Lakeside General Station: 23

Landscape: 16, 84

Landscape-Arkansas: 85

LaSalle and Tonty Meet the IIIini: 22

Lawd, Mah Man's Leavin': 23, 120

Lawn Party (c. 1937, cat. no. 45): 5, I 17

Lawn Party (c. 1937, cat. no. 46): I 18

Lawrence, Jacob: 44, 45

Lee, Doris: 54

Lee-Smith, Hughie: 57

The Liar: xv, 21, I 10

THE ART OF ARCHIBALD j. MOTLEY, JR.

Light and Shadow: 50

Lincoln Riding Through Richmond April 9, 1865:

22, 23

Locke, Alain: xvi, 35, 37,38,39,51
Louisiana: 40, 43
Louvre: 17

Love of Winter (George Bellows): 5

Mammy: See Woman Peeling Apples

New Orleans Mammy (Wayman Adams): 34, 35

Mannes, Mary: 12

Marijuana Joint: 21

Market Scene, Mexico: 25, 137

Marsh, Reginald: 55

Martinique Dancer: 18

Martinique Youth: 18

Mask (Sargent Johnson): xvi

Matisse, Henri: 15

Maxwell Street: 54

Mending Socks: 8, 15, 36, 76, 77

Mexico: 1,24-25, 54

Midway Gardens: 5

Midway Studio: 48

Mission Church of St. Brendan: 2

Mississippi: 40

Missouri: 40

Modern Negro Art: xv

Morgan Park: 41

Morrow, Edward: 14

Motley, Archibald J., Jr. 2, 3, 20, 25, 26, 27, 33; in
Arkansas: 16-17, 33; artistic goals: 6, 14, 27,
33-34, 47; and Chicago: 1,17, 20, 36, 38, 53,
54, 57; Creole heritage: 1,8, 18, 43; education:
2-4, 5, 34, 50, 53; employment: 3-4, 6, 24;
exhibitions: 8, 10, 11-14, 15, 22, 36, 38, 53;
family: 1-2, 3, 8; influences on: 5, 15, 35, 54; in
Mexico: 1,24-25; in Paris: 1,17-19, 33, 38
Motley, Archibald J., Sr.; 2, 3, 7-8, 37, 40, 41
Motley, Edith G.: 3, 8, 18-19,24
Motley, Emily: 8
Motley, Flossie: 1,7
Motley, Mary F.: 2, 3, 7, 19
Motley, Rita: 7

Motley, Willard: 7, 24, 25, 54
A Mulatress: 36

Mulatress with Figurine and Dutch Seascape: 9,71
Municipal Tuberculosis Sanitarium: 21
murals: 21-22, 56
Murray, Mrs. Morris T.: 13

162

Myself at Work: See Self-Portrait
Nail, John E.: 13

Nancy: See Woman Peeling Apples
National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People (NAACP): 16, 42
National Conference of Artists: xvi
Neal, Frank: 57
Neal, George: 55

Near San Miguel de Allende: 25, 139
Negro Business League: 42
Negro Children: 21

Negro Drawings (Miguel Covarrubias): 15

"Negro in Art Week": 51

Negro Slaves at Work: 21

Negroes Captured in Africa: 21

New Gallery: 10, I 1-14, 15,38

The New Negro: xvi, 37, 38

New Negro Movement: 12, 14, 36, 38, 47

New Orleans: 1,47

New York Times Magazine: 13

New Yorker: 12

Newark Museum: 8, I I

Nicholas Elementary School: 21

Nightlife: 23, 123

Nighthawks (Edward Hopper): 4

No-Jury Society of Artists: I 1,53, 56

Norton, John: 5,21,49, 50

Nous Quatre a Paris (Palmer Hayden): 44

Nude (Portrait of My Wife): 18-19, 96

Nude: 130

Octoroon: 9, 12, 35, 43, 74
The Octoroon Girl: 9, 79
Okey Records: 47
Olivet Baptist Church: 45
Orozco, Jose Clemente: 54
Otis, George Demont: 53
Oubre, Hayward L.: xv
"Paintings and Watercolors by Living American
Artists" Exhibition: 8, I I

"Paintings by Negro Artists of the Illinois Art Project"
Exhibition: 23

Palette and Chisel Academy: 52
Paris: I, 17-19, 33
Parks, Gordon: 57
Pekin Cafe: 47
Perkins, Marion: 57
Peyraud, Frank C.: 52

Peter Stuyvesant, Governor of New Amsterdam: 22
Picking Cotton: 21

The Picnic: 21,43, III
Pious, Robert Savon: 51
Plan of Chicago, 1909:49
Playground: 23, 121
Playing Poker: xv
The Plotters: xv, 20, 100, 101
Policy racket: 46
Pollack, Peter: 23, 57
Porter, James A.: xv
Portrait of a Lady (Randall Davey): 5
Portrait of a Woman on a Wicker Settee: 19, 99
Portrait of an Octoroon: See Octoroon
Portrait of Mrs. A. J. Motley, Jr.: 1 8 , 97
Portrait of My Father: See Portrait of the Artist's
Father

Portrait of My Grandmother: 8, 75
Portrait of My Mother: 5, 7, 70
Portrait of My Wife: See Nude
Portrait of the Artist's Father: 7-8, 73
Priebe, Karl: 57

Progressive America: 21,22, 109

Provident Hospital: 42

Pulitzer, Ralph: 13

Quadroon: 43

Race Riot, 1919: 6, 42

Raphael: 19

Reception: 9-1 1,80

Recess: See Playground

Recreation: 21

Refugees: 19

Reid, O. Richard: 14

Renoir, Pierre Auguste: 15

Revue du Vrai et du Beau: 16

Rich, Daniel Catton: 22-23, 51

Rita: 7, 69

Roadside Conference: 133
Robinson, Increase: 57
Rivera, Diego: 24, 54
Roosevelt, Eleanor: 57
Ryerson, Martin A.: 48
St. Louis: I

Salon des Refuses: 53

Son Miguel de Allende: 25, 138

Sargent, John Singer: 52

Saturday Night: 17, 20, 22, 25, 34, 108

Savage, Augusta: xv, 14

Savoy Ballroom: 47

School of the Art Institute of Chicago: 3, 5, 6, 34,
35,49-51,52 ,53, 55

INDEX

Schwartz, William S.: 5, 51-52, 54
Scott, William Edouard: 50, 53
Sebree, Charles: 54, 57
Seated Nude : 4, 68
Sears Roebuck and Company: 40
Segregation: 40-42, 44-45, 51
Self-Portrait: 7, 72

Self-Portrait (Myself at Work): 20, 103

Self-Portrait (Malvin Grey Johnson): xvi

Senegalese: 18

Seri Indian Woman: 24

Seurat, Georges: 5

Sharks: 19

Shiva, Ramon: 52

Siporin, Mitchell: 54

Siquieros, David Alfaro: 54

Sloan, John: 5

Small’s: 12

Smith, Lucy, Elder: 46

Smith, Bessie: 37

Smith Act: 16

The Snuff Dipper: 17, 86

South Side Community Art Center: 23, 57

Spell of the Voodoo: 12

Spirituals: 19

State Sanitarium (Evansville, Indiana): 21

Statue of Liberty: 27

Stieglitz, Alfred: 52

Stomp: 16, 20, 35, 46

State Street: 2, 41,46

State Street Scene: See Extra Paper

Strain, Frances: 54

“The Stroll”: 2

Styletone: 24

Subway Construction: 23

Sunday Afternoon on the Island of the Grande Jatte
(Georges Seurat): 5
Sunday in the Park: 23, 33, 122
Sunset Cafe: 49
Surprise in Store: 21

Syncopation: 16, 20, 36, 46, 50, 53, 54
Szukalski, Stanislaus: 49, 53
Taft, Lorado: 3, 49

Tanner, Henry Ossawa: xv, 13, 34, 35, 36, 38, 50
Tennessee: 40

Tenth Street Studio Building: 48
Thanksgiving (Doris Lee): 54
Thompson, William Hale: 45
Tomanek, Joseph: 5,51,52, 56

Tombstones (Jacob Lawrence): 45

Tongues: 17, 46, 95

Topchevsky, Morris: 57

Treasury Relief Art Project: 21

Tree Studio Building: 48

"Udstilling af Amerikansk Kunst” Exhibition: 22

Uncle Bob: 16-17, 89

United States Mail: 22, I 12, 113

United States Mail (sketch): I 12

University of Chicago: 39

Valentine Gallery: 15

Vanderpoel, John: 49

Van Der Zee, James: 37

Van Pappelendam, Laura: 54

Vaughan, Sarah: 57

Vice industries: 46

Victory Life Insurance Company: 38

The Village Houses (George Bellows): 5

Voodoo: 12, 39

Wabash Avenue YMCA: 42

Waganda [Uganda] Charm-Maker: 12

Waganda [Uganda] Woman's Dream: 12

Walcott, George: 4, 5

Washington, Booker T.: 42

Weisenborn, Rudolph: 49, 52, 53

Wells, Ida B.: 40

Whip: 43

White, Charles: xv, 51,54, 55,57
White, Robert: 16
Wilder, Thornton: 57
Wilson, Ellis: 51
Winslow, Vernon: 58

Woman on a Wicker Settee: See Portrait of a Woman
on a Wicker Settee
Woman Peeling Apples: 9, 78
Wood River, Illinois, post office: 22
Woodlawn: 41
Woodruff, Hale: xv
Wood, Grant: 54

Works Progress Administration: 20-21,23, 55-57

World War 1:39, 40, 48

World’s Columbian Exposition: 2, 3, 40, 48

163